


This Is Why We Fight

by ChloeRhiannonX



Category: Total Drama
Genre: Alternate Universe - Zombie Apocalypse, Alternate Universe - Zombies, F/F, F/M, Zombie Apocalypse, Zombies
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-02
Updated: 2014-11-30
Packaged: 2018-01-03 07:31:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, Underage
Chapters: 18
Words: 50,453
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1067741
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChloeRhiannonX/pseuds/ChloeRhiannonX
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's been 10 months since the disease escaped the lab, though Courtney's starting to believe it was never really a disease at all. More like a plague. Maybe an experiment by the government to stop their ever growing population that went horribly wrong. Either way, all she knows now is that she had to survive long enough to get rescued- if she ever gets rescued.<br/>Five months in and Courtney finally finds life in another teenage girl her age. Not taking any chances, the two pair up and head off towards what Gwen believes to be a safe haven on the far side of the country, but what will it take to get there? NaNoWriMo 2013.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue: Where It Ends

**Author's Note:**

> Warning. This story contains violence, swearing and sexual content as well as an abundance of different pairings and characters from the Total Drama series. Not to mention that from this point on wards, many of those characters will be OOC to fit better into the story. If none of that bothers you, enjoy.  
> Pairings (mentioned, implied and crushes): Courtney/Gwen, Courtney/Duncan, Gwen/Duncan, Courtney/Scott, Gwen/Cody, Courtney/Alejandro, Alejandro/Heather, Zoey/Mike, Gwen/Trent.  
> The story idea hit me after I saw a drawing on Tumblr by skeeterdayz, an idea she had from naeshi...So really, thank you to both of them for inspiring me to write this fic. I am so happy and proud of the way it has turned out, and I really hope you enjoy it too.  
> This is 50,509 words long!  
> And now, without further adieu, this is my NaNoWriMo 2013 novel...

The smell of blood was overpowering, and if it had been this much in the normal world Courtney would have thrown up. But this wasn't the normal world and Courtney was long used to the blooded air that filled her lungs on a daily basis. In fact, she learnt to be more aware when she couldn't smell blood because it meant that the area wasn't infected yet. Areas didn't stay uninfected for long.  
Her hands finished wrapping the bandage tightly around her ankle. It wasn't perfect and ten months ago it would have bothered her, now she was just glad she could find a bandage.  
Slowly, she stuck her head around the side of the bin. Looking both ways, she found there was no one there. Praying it would stay that way and the ones that had been following her had gone, she made a break for it. Two streets she managed to make it before she saw the first one. Swallowing her breath, she ducked down behind an abandoned car. Courtney could hear the lump of a thing grunting, followed closely by crashing metal- it was searching the trash cans.  
She slid herself under the car, keeping low to ground and evening out her breath as best she could. She reached one hand behind her, pulling her walkie-talkie from her tool belt and turning the volume off. The last thing Courtney needed was any noise distraction. The only plan she had was to search the pockets of her tool belt for any sort of item that could be used in this situation. Stale gum? No. Pocket knife? No. Bouncy ball?  
'It could work,' she told herself, thinking it over. She slid further along the floor, glad it was not gravel- she'd made that mistake before. Courtney couldn't make out much of her surroundings as the streetlights were all smashed, and sun had set a good hour ago- though she wasn't entirely sure since the last attack she had suffered had left her without a watch and she was yet to find a new one.  
Carefully, she reached her arm out from under the car, bouncy ball in hand. Gathering her strength she threw it, quickly retracting her arm before it saw her. She waited, unable to see the face, but the grunts had ceased. Courtney kept her eyes trained on what she assumed was its legs, watching carefully until it shuffled away, in the exact direction she had tossed the ball.  
'Ha,' she smirked to herself, almost forgetting her pain in her triumph. 'And Gwen said it would be useless.'  
Courtney was always collecting all sorts of random junk. Gwen, her sort of partner and only real friend in this messed up new world, had gained a new need to scold her for it. But Courtney was a CIT, or at least had been back in the normal world, and knew that one way or another, this junk was going to come in handy. Like the bouncy ball. She had been carrying that thing around for her for about three weeks now, and it had definitely come in handy when it came to saving her life.  
Courtney couldn't wait to brag to Gwen about it. And speaking of her partner, she knew she should be running off to find her.  
The teenager managed to get herself out from under the car without too much fuss. It had been a long ten months of doing the same thing over and over again, so it was no big deal to do now. Back in the beginning was a different story, but Courtney preferred not to think to those days. Memories of the past, of a time when she didn't have to live on the move with a stranger she had only known for a matter of weeks, were much too painful.  
Shaking her head free of all those thoughts, Courtney hobbled along the streets, her throbbing ankle starting to act up. She tried to ignore the pain, hoping that if she forgot about it it would go away. She prayed she could get to the safe house without too much trouble. After everything she had been through so far she didn't think she was asking for too much by not wanting trouble. However, in this messed up place, trouble always found a way to get to her.  
At the end of the street Courtney could see the low glow of a burning candle in the top floor window of an abandoned house. Most houses were abandoned by now, with no remaining humans in sight. The candle was the sign that Courtney had been looking for; this was the safe house. She moved faster, trying her best to ignore the burning she felt spreading through her lower leg. It was starting to spread and she needed to rest soon.  
She reached the door and looked around for any sign of them, but when she drew up short she knocked on the door. Three fast, two slow. It was the code they had designed to help differentiate allies from enemies.  
The door swung open and Courtney was forcefully dragged inside towards the darkness.  
"Shit, Cody!" The brunette hissed, her ankle rolling beneath her weight.  
"What?" The innocent kid asked, and though she couldn't see his face, she knew he was pulling that face. The one that made him look like an angel that could do no wrong. When, in reality, he was their weapon supplier.  
Courtney took a guess of where he was and threw her arm around his shoulders, leaning on him for support. Cody wrapped his arm around her waist and guided her towards the staircase.  
"I was bit."  
"You were bit?" Cody almost dropped Courtney in shock, but she kept a tight hold on him. Feeling her way in the dark, Courtney took a seat on the edge of the stairs and started scooting herself upwards one step at a time. Cody's shallow breathing was in front of her, so at least he hadn't run off in fear of getting infected himself. "How did you get bitten? How did you get away? Are you feeling funny? Do you need to lie down? Should I get out of here? Are you going to eat me?" As helpful as Cody was, he was also the most annoying person Courtney had ever met- and Courtney had met some pretty annoying people in the last few months.  
Courtney ignored everything he said and felt her way along the hallway to the room with the candle glowing in the window. Cody continue to follow her and she collapsed onto the double bed. She could feel the dust clouds jumping around her, trying to guess what happened here. Maybe the family saw what was going on and escaped. Maybe one of them got infected and attacked the rest. It could have gone either way, Courtney knew from experience.  
She bit down on her lower lip, scolding herself for thinking that way.  
Cody sad down on the end of the bed, taking Courtney's bandaged ankle in his lap. The bandage was already starting to turn a dark crimson color. The blood had overtaken the dirt. Carefully, he unwrapped it, inspecting the wound as best he could with such little light. A lot of the houses still had electricity, but turning on a light would attract a lot of unwanted attention.  
"Courtney..." Cody gasped, lifting her leg up by the ball of her foot. "This is disgusting." The outline of the teeth was hard to make out through the blood stains, but it was obvious to those who had witnessed the same thing happen time and time again what had gone down. Courtney was lucky to be alive. "I-I think it's infected," he continued to babble on. "Your leg looks a little green. Maybe we should try to stitch you up-"  
"You're not a doctor. I don't trust you with a needle and thread anywhere near my leg," Courtney quickly snapped at him. Cody stared her down, chewing on the inside of his cheek, something he often did when trying to decide what to do. Not that Courtney and Gwen let him take charge often, but if they ever had enough time, they let him. If he had enough time to think it through, Cody could come up with some wonders, but as the three of them were in a constant state of moving through the country, there was very little time to let Cody think up plans.  
"What happened?" He asked, still inspecting the ankle. There wasn't much he could do but look if she wasn't willing to let him help.  
"After we separated I was chased down the avenue. I tripped over something- I think it was a car part- and it got me. Sunk it's teeth into my ankle before I could shoot it in my head. Used up my last bullet...but I lost my gun anyway, so it doesn't matter." Courtney swallowed hard as another wave of pain hit her. "I managed to hide from the others down a side ally behind some dumpsters and I wrapped myself up there."  
Five knocks on the door. Three fast, two slow. Cody quickly abandoned his post as Courtney's doctor and ran down back down the staircase. Courtney rolled her eyes; typical Cody. He would rather play doctor with an uninjured Gwen than with a dying Courtney. She could hear them whispering downstairs, no doubt in her mind that Cody had already told the tale of how she had gotten bitten.  
Courtney peered down at her ankle. The blood was thick and sticky, marking the bed sheets as it slid down her skin. Her body would jolt with every wave of pain, spilling it everywhere. It was starting to slow down, though, and would most likely stop within the next hour, but only if she could keep it bandaged up. She tried to bend to get the bandage she had been using previously, which Cody had dropped on the floor in his quick escape, but the pain that shot through her leg was too much.  
Even in the faint light that she had, it was obvious that her the veins in her leg had already started to pop out, turning sickly green in color. It was the first sign that she was turning. Courtney hit her head on the pillow, willing herself not to cry when another teenage girl burst into the room.  
Gwen's skin was luminous even against the background of the dark house, like she had never seen sunlight. The rest of her was hard to make out until she had jumped onto the bed beside Courtney. Her eyes were full of worry as they swept over Courtney's body. So far it was only her leg, but it would spread, there was no doubt about it. Gwen laid a shaking hand on Courtney's forehead and Courtney couldn't hold back the tears anymore. She started to sob.  
"Just do it," Courtney sniveled. "Just shoot me already and be done with it." Gwen shook her head and Courtney could feel drops of tears falling onto her forehead. "You don't have a choice!"  
"I'm not letting you go this easily," Gwen choked on her own words. "We've come too far for it to end like this." Courtney knew she was talking about more than one thing, but with Cody in the room she wouldn't go into the details. Poor kid was too innocent for his own good. "I am not giving up on you."  
"Gwen-" But the sudden crack from downstairs silenced her. Another and another. Something was trying to break down the door. Gwen rolled off the bed and ran to the window to check. She snuffed out the candle, but it was obvious that they were here.  
"I thought you said you lead them away!" Cody yelled, gathering his things into his backpack.  
"They must have followed me." Gwen grabbed the bandage from the floor and quickly wrapped Courtney's ankle back up. "They're getting smarter."  
"What are you doing?" Courtney asked over the noise. "Stop it!" She wiggled her ankle out of Gwen's grasp, but it was already re-wrapped. "Just leave me here!"  
"No." Gwen's voice was stern enough to stop Courtney from arguing. Gwen was rarely a serious person, but this one instance made her more determine than ever to reach the island and get Courtney the help she needed. "I've already told you, I'm not letting you go this easily." She turned to Cody. "Make a distraction, I'll get Courtney out the back door." Cody nodded his head and started rifling through his backpack for something useful. Gwen hooked one arm under Courtney's back and the other under her legs, picking her up and rushing towards the staircase. "You're gonna be alright," she whispered, but both girls knew that she was lying.


	2. Where It Starts

_Five Months Earlier_

It wasn't for her lack of trying, but the door refused to budge. The short figure had been attempting to shoulder her way in since long past sunset and was only now starting to worry about the noise she was making. It had been a long four months, but she knew better now than she did back then. Noise, among various other things, attracted unwanted attention.  
Finally giving up on the door, she sneaked around back and found a few windows open. They were higher up, which did mean that not a lot of people would be able to make the jump, and, even with a running start, she barely made it through. She scraped her knee along the brick wall and tumbled to the floor the other side was thud.  
"Fuck," she hissed under her breath, careful to not be too loud. There didn't seem to be anyone around, but the air had a eerily quiet tone to it. The girl lowered her face mask- a simple off-white handkerchief that had seen better days, wrapped around her mouth and nose with some wire. People had said the airborne disease had long gone before she had even left her hometown, but she found it was better to be safe than sorry over a rumor that was most likely not true.  
The door was dead bolted, as she had expected, but the barricade of desks and chairs took her by surprise. Then again, a school building was an obvious place to start a safe house. There had probably been a horde of people gathered in here in the beginning, hiding out, staying safe, before they found out that large groups of people weren't the best way to go about this strange new world.  
The school building had looked a lot bigger on the outside, while the inside seemed to be made up of more hallways than classrooms. It was easy too get lost, but also very easy to hide. She was on edge as she inspected each room she passed. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary for an abandoned school: upturned desks, scattered chairs, and more dust than the inside of a math textbook. Near the back of the building she found a wide-set staircase that led up to the second floor. She wished she still had her flashlight to pull out just in case, but she'd dropped it while running the night before. It had been too risky to stop for a few seconds to pick it up, her pursuers weren't going to slow down for her.  
The second floor was much like the first, so much so that she already knew what direction to travel in. She started back towards the front of the building, taking a good look through all of the rooms. If one of the things was hiding anywhere in the building, it could jump out at any second.  
She continued her search before coming to a dead end down the last corridor. She peeked through the narrow window of the final door. The room was empty. Slowly, she pushed the door open, cringing when it gave a loud squeak. The classroom itself looked like the rest. The walls were decorated with sheets of paper and the lino flooring was covered in thick black lines from where past students had pushed their chairs back heavily. Staring at the room, it made her nostalgic for a time when she could have sat in a classroom. She would have given anything for a chemistry mishap or a few laps around the field, anything that meant normality. She craved for the world she had left behind.  
She took a few steps in, deciding this was as good as room as ever to set up camp. The window that stretched across the far wall showed a great view of the city skyline, perfect for noticing any unwanted arrivals.  
She continued to walk in and-  
THWACK!  
The pain spread across her back and she crumpled to the floor, protecting her face and rolling onto her side. She remembered when she eight and she had climbed the tree in her backyard. Her mother had warned her not to, but she couldn't resist the adventure. It wasn't until her little brother had followed her did things turn bad. They'd argued on one of the lower branches over who should get to sit on it, and in the end he'd pushed her too hard and she'd fallen to the ground. The oxygen rushed from her lungs and the pain from her arm-which had turned out to be broken-had been too much for her young body to take. This reminded her of this.  
A slender figure stood above her, though she couldn't make it out very well. They were definitely holding a baseball bat- or at least she hoped it was a baseball bat and not a steel rod; that would have done some damage.  
"Holy fuck!" She screamed, rolling on the floor. She wanted to sit up, or at least sweep her leg out in the dark and trip this other person up, but she couldn't bring herself to do so. Either she was in too much pain, or understood that if someone had entered her hiding space she would have attacked them too, but she knew she wasn't going to fight back.  
"Y-You can talk?" The voice was shaky, but determined, as if she wanted to take control of the situation but had no idea how to.  
"Yes I can fucking talk!" She yelled back, "Why the fuck wouldn't I?"  
"I thought you were a zombie," the voice replied, tossing the bat onto the floor, not feeling so threatened anymore. She picked up a flashlight and shone it down on the girl on the floor, who was now looking at her with a funny expression that she couldn't place. "What?"  
"Zombie?" She asked, the side of her mouth tugging up as she held her hands to her back, the pain momentarily forgotten.  
"You haven't seen them?" There was a glint of hope in her voice, though her face was still masked by the lack of light, the flashlight still pointing to the floor.  
"I've seen them," she said, attempting to sit up. "Why do you think I'm hiding out here?" The flashlight fell to the floor and the other girl knelt down, trying to help steady her into a sitting position, but she seemed content with lying down. "I just...I never thought of them as zombies before." She chuckled at the thought. Zombies were a fictional creature that only appeared in movies and comics, out here in real life there was just an advanced illness going around.  
"Sorry," the other girl mumbled, fiddling for her light source again. "For hitting you." She seemed uncomfortable with the idea of apologizing, like it was some sort of foreign concept to her.  
They sat in silence for a long time as the clock ticked away on the wall. The flashlight had been turned off to conserve the battery and now they couldn't see each other at all.  
She was still in pain, but leaning her shoulders against the cool floor was helping it ease off. The other girl had curled up in the corner in what she assumed was a sleeping bag from the noise that emerged as she'd struggled into it.  
"Are you hungry?" Before she could answer, the other girl had slid a small packet across the floor towards her. Upon closer inspection she found it to be a breakfast bar. In the normal world, she would never have eaten something so healthy, but right then she would have given anything for a decent meal. The other girl started eating one too, talking between mouthfuls. "I'm Courtney, by the way."  
"Gwen," she replied, making sure to savor every bite she took. It had been a long thirty-six hours since she had last eaten. It had been her last packet of rice that she had managed to find in a kitchen in an abandoned house in her hometown. She's cooked it in a different house for breakfast, though someone else had already raided that one of all the food. That had been before she had set out for the day once again, ending up at the school.  
The silence between them was uncomfortable to say the least. It had been a long time since either had been in another persons company, so much so that they had both forgotten how to be social to another human. The 'zombies' weren't exactly great company.  
"So..." Gwen eased herself into a sitting position, the pain not feeling so heavy. "How long have you been here?"  
Courtney shrugged. "I don't remember...maybe a month?" Gwen nodded, understanding how hard it was to calculate time. She wasn't sure how long it had really been since she had been on the move herself. "I-I left home and went to a few other houses instead...but no where was as safe as it is here." There sounded as if there was more to that story than had been shared, but Gwen was also biting her own tongue after that. She didn't know if Courtney was trustworthy, or if she was going to stab her in the back, take her supplies and run. "There's no where else for me to go, so I'm going to stay here. There's a ton of food in the cafeteria and the building is out of the way enough so that the zombies don't bother me." Gwen did have to admit that it was a great plan, though a slightly foolish one to just assume the virus wasn't going to get you from here.  
"I'm heading East," she said. She licked the wrapper in her hand, making sure to get every last bit that she could; who knew when she would eat next? "The Island of Newfoundland is uninfected, so I'm heading there."  
Even though it was almost pitch black in the room, Gwen could see Courtney shaking her head. "No where is uninfected. An airborne disease doesn't just stop at the boarder. I wouldn't be surprised if it's already made it's way through half the globe by now. It's been, what? Five months? No one's safe from it."  
"At least it's a better chance than waiting around here for a rescue that's never going to happen." Gwen tried to get to her feet to do a dramatic storm away, but the pain in her back hadn't subsided enough and she saw spots. Collapsing onto the cold floor, Courtney rolled her a bottle of water which Gwen gratefully took. It was soon followed by two small pills which she swallowed down without a second look, hoping they weren't some kind of drug. Her snap judgment was that Courtney was an innocent teenager, like herself, who just wanted a place to hide out until all of this had blown over. That was, however, where they differed. Gwen didn't believe this was going to blow over on its own.  
"How do you even know that Newfoundland is safe?" Courtney asked, getting agitated.  
"One of my neighbors has a friend out there who called after the virus had spread and she had no idea what was going on," Gwen explained, her voice growing louder. "I know it's no guarantee, but it's the best I have! You're sitting around here waiting for a rescue party that's never going to come. We're on our own. You're not some damn Princess who's going to get rescued!"  
"I'm not waiting for anyone to come rescue me! I know as well as you do that this world has gone to hell! But at least I'm not on some suicide mission for some dwindling hope that doesn't actually exist!" Courtney's voice matched Gwen's, neither backing down. But after a few minutes of attempting to stare each other out, though they couldn't actually see each other, Courtney leaned back against the wall behind the door, the spot she had picked for her campsite. "And you're right," she whispered. "I'm not a Princess."  
Gwen scrunched her forehead, not sure where that really fitted into the conversation, but if there was one thing she had found out about Courtney in the half-hour since she had whacked her with a baseball bat, it was that she didn't like to explain herself. Not pushing the subject, Gwen slowly laid back down on the floor, resting her head on the pillow she'd been provided with.  
"You can stay here tonight," Courtney voice floated across their living area once again. "But you really should leave in the morning." Even if she wanted to go, Gwen wouldn't have been able to move enough to continue on. The acetaminophen had targeted her headache, but not done so much good for the backache.  
It wasn't until she had woken up the next morning did Gwen even realize she had fallen asleep. The pain that had plagued her last night seemed to not be hurting anymore, though she was sure there would be some bruising. She rolled onto her side, noting that Courtney had tossed a blanket over her at some point last night. She could see the other girl from her position, curled up in a red sleeping bag. If someone opened the door full swing, she would have gotten smashed in the face. Behind the door seemed like a stupid place to camp-out, but Gwen also knew that if she had been in the middle of the room then she would be easily spotted.  
With the sunlight streaming in through the window, Gwen didn't have to struggle to make out the appearance of the other teenager. Now able to see her, Gwen noticed she had fully Hispanic features, but was sure she hadn't detected an accent last night. Her skin was a rich caramel, a stark contrast to Gwen, who could easily give Snow White a run for her money. Her hair was a few tones darker, with a patchy birthmark on her right forearm, and when she opened her eyes they were the darkest of all.  
Courtney stretched out like a cat: arching her back inside the sleeping bag and forcing her arms out in front of her. She blinked a few times and Gwen saw dark clouds roll across her eyes as she did. She noted that Courtney was giving her a one over, like she had just been doing. Gwen wasn't at all self-conscious about the way she looked and had never been one of those girls who caked themselves in make-up to hide their insecurities.  
"You're still here," Courtney spoke with a yawn. "I thought you would be long gone by now." She got out from her sleeping bag, using it as a seat instead. Gwen widened her eyes a few times, trying to help herself wake up. She threw the blanket back to Courtney, mumbling a thank you.  
"I um-I need supplies," Gwen said, retrieving her handkerchief face-mask that had fallen from around her neck during the night. She got to her feet, glad that the only pain she felt was now a dull thumping between her shoulder blades. Courtney nodded her head and got to her feet. Grabbing her baseball bat and two flat backpacks, she left the room, and Gwen followed closely, not leaving anything of hers behind.  
They walked in silence through the hallways and down the staircase. Gwen was lost in her thoughts. She wasn't sure what part of Canada she was in anymore. After coming across a group of infected huddled together in an alleyway opening, she had forgotten all city signs and ran, ending up at the school once she had managed to shake them. Wherever she was, it must have been a small town because this school wouldn't have been able to hold much more than three hundred students, and it was no where near classy enough to be a private school.  
Courtney had taken them down to the cafeteria and through to the kitchen. She searched around some of the cupboards, adding all sorts to both the backpacks while Gwen stood and watched in awe. She really knew how to take charge of a situation when she tried.  
"I know it's not much, but it's all I can really spare," Courtney said, handing one of the backpacks over to Gwen and slinging the second over one shoulder herself. She didn't know what she meant by 'not much' because the bag was fuller than her refrigerator at home had ever been, and she gave a thankful nod for it being so.  
"I guess I'll exit through the window," Gwen said as they walked into the foyer, motioning with her head towards the barricade.  
A smile played on Courtney's lips, obviously proud of what she had achieved. "I wasn't expecting company," she tried to joke, but it fell flat.  
Gwen tossed the backpack onto the window ledge, hefting herself up beside it, she turned back to face Courtney. Though they had only known each other for one night, Gwen felt a sort of sadness towards leaving. She couldn't remember the last time she had talked to an actual person, and she had no idea when the next time would be, either.  
"Good luck, I guess," she said awkwardly, shifting her green eyes away from the other girl.  
"Yeah," Courtney mumbled back. "You too."  
With one final look, Gwen threw herself to floor outside the school building. It was higher than she'd remembered from yesterday, and the pain her back soared. She refused to cry out. Collecting herself, Gwen set off in the direction she had been heading in yesterday, grateful for the rising sun to guide her. 

 

Courtney had retreated back to her classroom and over to the window. She watched Gwen's retreating figure limp away down the empty street. The school was completely alone for a mile radius each way, with only a once neatly kept field across from it, that had now grown into a jungle that she could only pray didn't house any zombies. She could see the tops of buildings just over the long-grass, and as beautiful as it looked with the sun shining down, it was just an appearance.  
Courtney continued to stay at the window for a long ten minutes after Gwen had disappeared over the hill. She was about to wander of to the library to find herself a book to keep occupied, when she noticed the sloppy figures travelling down the road from the other direction. Without a second glance, she skidded across the floor to her campsite and hurriedly stuffed her sleeping bag into its case. She rounded up her other belongings into the backpack, grateful that she had had the sense to fill it up with the other one, and adjusted the straps to her shoulders. She threw the sleeping bag strap across her right shoulder and under her left arm, letting it rest against the backpack. Courtney grabbed her baseball bat and bolted down the hallways to the staircase, retracing her steps from not that long ago. She jumped up onto the window ledge that Gwen had left through and copied her actions. The full weight of the backpack crushed her to the floor, but Courtney scrambled to her feet with haste, not even bothering to wipe the mud from the knees of her once designer jeans. If she had done that six months ago, Courtney would have freaked out, now she was too busy running down the road after the girl that had invaded her hiding spot. The old Courtney would never have run anywhere other than a treadmill, but this Courtney was more determined to not get eaten by zombies.  
"GWEN!" The Hispanic teenager bellowed when she saw her off in the distance. Courtney knew that raising her voice would attract the zombies to their location, she just hoped she would be able to outrun them faster than they could catch up.  
Gwen stopped in her tracks, turning around to see the other girl heading at full speed towards her. She hadn't expected to be followed and wondered if she had managed to knock some sense into Courtney after their argument last night.  
"Can I help you?"  
"I saw-" Courtney cut herself off, panting for air. "I saw z-zombies," she said, bending over to rest her hands on her knees. "They were heading toward the school. I-I had to get out." She leaned against an abandoned car on the side of the road while Gwen turned to face the horizon. They hadn't caught up with them yet, so they knew they had time. "Besides," Courtney continued, a smirk on her face. "You stole my flashlight." Gwen let out a laugh, the first laugh in what felt like a decade. Deciding that having someone to watch her back wasn't the worst thing in the world, she let Courtney take the lead as they continued to speed walk down the long road to the next town.


	3. When It Comes Out

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Courtney and Gwen continue their travels for a safe haven when an old 'friend' makes an appearance. The past can't stay past forever.

The engine rattled, a dying sound echoing through the empty surroundings. Gwen scoffed, walking away from the car before she decided to knock Courtney out for being so stupid.   
"I know what I'm doing," was the phrase she got over and over again. But, yet, the engine wasn't working too well. This was the third car they'd tried and Gwen was starting to give up all hope. She wanted to abandon Courtney and walk off on her own, but after only four days of working as a team, she wasn't so sure she could survive on her own again.   
It wasn't until the fourth car, a black range rover coated in crusted mud and a thick layer of dust, did they get some luck.   
"Yeah, baby!" Courtney exclaimed with joy as the car came to life before her very eyes. Gwen raised an eyebrow in surprise, eyeing the younger girl that was now perched in the drivers seat, ready to head-out. It had been Courtney's idea to stop walking and find other means of transportation. With the blisters on her feet the size of lipstick tubes, it was all getting too much for her. She missed the safety of her secluded classroom, but there was something about the danger of travelling that compelled her to keep going. Then again, she'd felt that compulsion before, and that had not ended well...  
"Where did you learn to hot wire a car?" Gwen asked, hopping into the passenger seat.   
The Hispanic teenager shrugged noncommittally. "My ex."  
Gwen's eyebrow remained raised after that, but in the four days they had known each other, Courtney was still yet to open up. She gave one or two worded answers when she was uncomfortable and Gwen had been left to guess for the whole half-week. This was just another one of those times.   
Courtney put the car into first gear and they reared forward. Gwen put her hands on the dashboard, stopping her head from cracking against it. "You're like twelve, you should not be driving!" She yelled.  
"I have my learners," the brunette defended, though it wasn't very good reasoning. She restarted the engine and slowed her pace, edging the car from its spot in the middle of a circus of automobiles and onto a side street that was a lot less crowded.   
They drove in silence for a while, something they did often. They didn't really know each other, though living in a world where zombies roamed free, it was easy to forget who you were.   
Gwen got bored of watching the passing scenery and decided to rummage in the backseat for entertainment. There was nothing more than a few plastic bags filled with new clothes (this person had obviously not made it home from their shopping trip), but nothing that interested her.  
Courtney swerved and Gwen hit her head against the roof. The clasp on her wristwatch had come loose and fallen to the floor. Courtney apologized, but it didn't stop the thumping in Gwen's head. She climbed into the backseat and slid her hand underneath for her watch. Instead she came across another plastic bag. This one was wrapped up tighter around a smaller object and when Gwen pulled it out she outwardly gasped in surprise.   
The other girl took a look in the rear view mirror, only to find her partner holding a small handgun. Her eyes widened, but she didn't say anything.   
Gwen checked the underneath of the seat again, but found no bullets, and she wasn't exactly sure how to check to see how many were in the gun already- though she was no expert, and had never actually held a gun before that moment, she could tell by the way it weighed down in her hand that it was loaded.   
She carefully placed it on the seat next to her as she grabbed her watch and jumped back into the passenger seat. The term 'shotgun' suddenly had a whole new meaning to her.   
They rode in silence for a lot longer this time."I'm sixteen, by the way," Courtney muttered. Gwen turned to look at her. She had guessed that her companion had been young, even though her presence was one of power and dominance. She didn't look very old, and Gwen was surprised she was as old as sixteen. "What about you?"  
"I think I'm coming up for eighteen," she admitted. "I don't know what the date is...but my birthday is September 18th."  
"I was sixteen in March." A wave of sadness washed over Courtney's face, though her eyes stayed glued to the windshield. She bit down on her lip before continuing her story. "I was supposed to start drivers ed that week, but it got cancelled because the instructor was sick. My birthday...it-it was a few days after the first outbreak." Gwen shifted in her seat, eager to listen to any explanation about herself Courtney would give. "I remember...we...we were at the breakfast table, and the morning news was on the TV in the kitchen. They mentioned the first outbreak in Yukon, about how some guy had gone crazy cannibalistic. He'd been feeling sick for a few days, so his wife took him out for dinner to cheer him up. Got to the middle of dinner and...well, it didn't end well, that's for sure." A shiver shot down Gwen's spine. She remembered hearing the same story on the radio when she'd been driving home from school. "I was going to ask if you thought the airborne disease had gone, but I suppose you don't," Courtney said, eyeing Gwen's handkerchief suspiciously. It laid around her neck today, still attached to the thin piece of bendable wire, the one she'd taken from a pipe cleaner out of desperation.   
"I don't know what to believe, anymore," she answered honestly. "I guess the air disease can't just vanish, right? So what happened to it? Because we've both been exposed as long as everyone else has, so why are we uninfected?" Courtney shrugged, not sure if it was a rhetorical question or not. "My theory is that some people, like ourselves, though there can't be a lot of us, have managed to develop a sort of immunity to it because we've been exposed for so long to small amounts, and now the large amounts don't hurt us." Gwen was no physician and had no idea how the world of diseases and medicines worked. "But, because I'm probably wrong," she tapped her handkerchief, "I always keep this close."  
The older teenager leaned her head against the window, hoping to drift off into sleep. She hadn't managed to get much of it last night. Between the two of them, they took it in turns to stand guard, and Gwen had taken the first watch. Once her shift had ended, she'd woken Courtney, and not long after she'd drifted to sleep (though it wasn't too hard to do when you were utterly exhausted), there had been an attack a few houses down from them. Gwen had spotted the light earlier in the evening, but had agreed with her partner to stay clear of it. Once they'd heard the terrified screams of some poor sap that had been trying to survive, they'd ran.   
Now was the only time she'd been able to rest, though the midday sun was not doing her any favors. Then again, her brain felt like mush and she fell into a light slumber before long.   
_She was at home with her brother, just the two of them, like old times. Gwen could feel the happiness radiating from her bones. They were sat at the kitchen table, chowing down on leftover Chinese food, catching up on all things sibling related. They talked with ease, something they had always done. There were no secrets between them and never had been. The day her younger brother had been born, Gwen had sworn to herself that she would always look out for him because that's what dad's did and Gwen had decided that she was the dad of this family now. His whole life, his older sister was someone he had counted on for everything, and that was really why he had no problem talking to her._  
But Gwen had a problem. She turned her head for one minuted to get a glimpse of her reflection in the mirror, just to tidy up her hair, but when she tried to turn back into the conversation, gone was the younger brother she cared so much about and in his place was the mutated version. His skin was grey and moldy, and she could smell it physically rotting away before her. His soft brown eyes had been replaced with lifeless black holes that were sizing up his next meal.   
She called his name, a whisper at first. It got louder and louder the more she said it, screaming it at him before he lunged for her.   
"GWEN!" Courtney hissed, roughly shaking her companions shoulder. "You need to wake up and shut up!"   
Gwen's eyes opened to see the setting sun dipping behind the horizon. It cast a soft, orange glow over the street they were in. Courtney had parked beside the sidewalk, though she could have just stopped in the middle of the road.   
"You were screaming," Courtney told her when she was awake enough to process actual words. "I think there's zombies around here." The Hispanic teen bit her lip, turning her eyes back to the road. It wasn't dark yet, but it was going to be soon. The engine had been making too much noise, so she had cut it off for now. But it hadn't been the setting sun that had worried Courtney at this point, it was the all too familiar flash of green she could have sworn she saw in the window of one of the near-by houses. She knew it was a long shot, maybe her malnourished mind playing tricks on her, but she wanted to check it out. "Maybe we should stay here tonight," she suggested. Gwen was still a little dazed from her dream to contradict.   
Together, they piled out of the car, gathering their belongings- Gwen's new handgun included- and headed down the street to the house that Courtney had pointed out.   
Courtney couldn't say she wasn't nervous now that Gwen was carrying a gun. She remembered seeing her changing her shirt the day after they had teamed up and noticing the dark purple bruise that now lined her shoulders blades from where Courtney's bat had struck her. Not that Gwen seemed like the sort of person that would go against someone that trusted them just for petty revenge, but Courtney couldn't honestly say she knew that much about the girl.   
The front door opened with ease and Courtney hoped there was a decent lock on it. She bit down on her lip as she took in the surroundings of the abandoned dwelling, looking out for the flash of green she had seen.   
Gwen walked towards the first room, but game up short when she heard a loud grunt. Courtney froze. That type of grunt only came from one thing; zombies. The older girl turned over her shoulder, holding her finger to her lips in an attempt to hush her partner. Courtney was too scared to say anything anyway, and moved quickly to catch up to Gwen. Slowly, they both stuck their heads around the corner.   
The family room looked beaten, with tattered curtains and dismantled furniture. Photo frames laid shattered on the floor, glass covering every bare floorboard. And there, slouching in front of the fireplace, was what the two had been dreading.   
The zombie was hunched over, looking at them with sunken black eyes. His skin was a sickly grey and the further down his body it went it turned sickly green.   
"Duncan," the brunette gasped. She only knew it was him for the lime green Mohawk that sat limply on his head, he was unrecognizable otherwise.   
"You know him?" Gwen asked skeptically, turning off the safety catch on the gun.   
"My ex," Courtney replied.   
"Huh," came the other girls response as she lifted up the weapon. She wasn't entirely sure what she was doing with it, but there no way she was going to let him live. "I was just about to say the same thing." She fired the first shot, but the bullet whizzed past his head, making a hole in the wall. Gwen's arm hadn't be steady enough.   
Courtney squeezed her eyes shut in shock and Duncan grunted again. He wasn't rushing forward to attack them like most other infected did, he was looking between them, almost calculating something inside his head. Courtney was about to suggest that he my be harmless, but Gwen had already fired another shot. This one was more accurate, hitting Duncan in the forehead, just to the right of his eyebrow ring. The force of the shot pushed him backwards and he hit his head on mantelpiece, collapsing onto the floor.   
One of the girls looks away, the other shot another bullet through his brain for good measure. They were both shaking when it was over. Gwen from fear and adrenaline, Courtney from the sobs that wracked her body.   
"Let's find another house," Gwen said, slinging the backpack that had fallen to the floor over her shoulder. She left the house, her hand gripping the gun by the barrel.   
Courtney didn't follow for a long time. She stayed staring at Duncan's lifeless body; yet another person claimed by the infection. It wasn't that she still had feelings for him, but she felt almost nostalgic. She wanted to go back to the times when the two of them had sneaked into her kitchen after the chef told them to stay out, and stolen enough food for their own mini-picnic up on her roof. They had laid on her old quilt, watching the stars and munching on grapes. It was the first time Duncan had said 'I love you' and Courtney had said it right back. Of course, she was only fifteen and he was only a year older, but back then it felt like real love to her. Until she'd found out he'd been seeing someone else behind her back. That was what had shattered her heart and that was why she felt more numb than sad as she continued to stare at her ex-boyfriend.  
By the time she felt comfortable enough to leave, the sun had set and Courtney had to pull her flashlight from her backpack. She didn't know where her partner had gone and ended up wandering back down the car they had vacated. It was dangerous to be out at night, let alone out at night with a light source.   
A few houses down in direction Courtney had been heading in, she heard her name called out. It was unmistakably Gwen.   
"Turn that fucking thing off and get in here!" She hissed angrily. Courtney guessed that having to shoot your ex-boyfriend wasn't a substitute happy pill after all.   
The brunette switched off the flashlight and half-jogged down to the house. It was in a better condition than the other one, like it had missed the zombie attack altogether. As soon as she was inside Gwen bolted the door. She had already closed all the drapes and Courtney could smell something cooking in a back room somewhere.   
Ten minutes later they had their camp set up in the living room, both with a sleeping bag on a sofa each (they'd managed to find Gwen her own after raiding a few houses), and were eating beans straight from the tin. It was the usual routine that they had managed to set up during their short period of time together- travel all day, camp out at night.   
The scraping of forks was all that could be heard, until Gwen was feeling well enough to bring up the elephant in the room.   
"So, you and Duncan, huh?" She asked, not meeting the other girls gaze.  
"So, you and Duncan, huh?" Courtney mimicked in return.   
Gwen rolled her eyes, but she wasn't ashamed of their relationship. "We had a fling last year." She added a shrug for effect. "No big deal, really."  
"I...I was with him last year." Was all that Courtney could manage to say. It made sense, somehow. She knew that he had cheated on her with an older woman who lived out of town, but she never thought she would end up having to survive a zombie apocalypse with that same girl.   
Courtney pushed her half-empty tin away from her, suddenly not so hungry anymore. She laid herself down on the sofa, turned away from Gwen.   
"I didn't know he had a girlfriend until he mentioned that you guys had broken up. He thought I'd be cool with it..." She shook her head. "If it makes you feel any better, I broke up with him right there." It didn't make her feel better. "He wasn't that good in the sack, anyway." That made her feel a little bit better. Courtney let out a watery laugh, brushing the tears from her cheeks.   
"I wouldn't know," she admitted.   
"Ah..." Gwen replied. "No offense, but that's probably why he went for someone else. You've always got to give them some- boys, that is. You need to give him enough so he doesn't stray, but not too much otherwise he gets clingy, and that never ends well for anybody." Gwen shuddered at the thought.   
"Which one was Liam?" The question caught her off guard. Courtney rolled onto her stomach, resting folding her arms across the armrest and resting her chin atop of them. She stared at Gwen for a moment while the shock died down. "You were calling his name in the car, when you were asleep. Did you dream about him?"  
"I um...Yeah. Yeah, I dreamed about him." Gwen pushed her food away too. Though she was famished, she suddenly felt nauseated all over again. "And neither. Liam...Liam was my brother."   
Neither girls had mentioned their family at all since they met. They both understood it was a sensitive subject, and while they didn't know each others stories, they figured they were both orphans for the same reason.


	4. Where It Might Get Better

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> And here we find Alejandro....or, more so, Alejandro finds them.

Liam was not mentioned again, and neither was Duncan. That moment had passed, and together, Courtney and Gwen decided to put it behind them. Once the sun had come up, the two of them had left that house and Courtney had hot wired a second car with a tank full of gas.  
It was a constant cycle of driving all day and hiding out after dark. It was only when they were ten days into their partnership did things start to go awry. They had driven out of one city and started heading towards the next, but it was a lot longer than anticipated. The highway was absent of human life, but was covered in abandoned cars. They took turns driving between them, trying their best to worm through the pack. It was harder than it looked, and when they finally got away, their smart car broke down. It was the worst ending to the worst day they had been having.  
Neither of them were very knowledgeable about cars, and when they popped the hood up, they each turned to the other looking just as confused.  
Gwen walked away, starting to walk down the highway instead. Courtney lead out a loud shriek, slamming the car hood closed, more than likely doing a lot more damage- though it didn't really matter at that point. The brunette angrily grabbed her belongings from the backseat and started trailing after Gwen.  
They gave each other distance for the first hour, giving Courtney time to cool off. Gwen had quickly learnt her partner had a bad temper when things didn't go her way, and had already worked out that she should be avoided at all costs when not in a good mood.  
When they stopped for a break, Courtney caught up, happily sipping down a large gulp of water. It was usually rationed more evenly, a system she herself had come up with to conserve what little supplies they had, but they were in the middle of an unforeseeable problem, one where all plans went out the window.  
Gwen twitched nervously under the heated sun. Summer should have been coming to a close in Canada soon, though there was no real way of telling without a working calender system anymore. Courtney turned her attention to her friend- because they had decided they must be some sort of friends by now- noticing how her hand was casually rested on top of the pistol she kept in her lower leg pocket of her camo pants. She hadn't used it since that one time, but Courtney could tell by the way that Gwen had picked up the nervous habit of biting her nails that just that one time had affected her deeply.  
They started up again after ten minutes, continuing their idle walk. Soon after, Courtney's stomach started to rumble from hunger, and Gwen chuckled to stop her own hunger pains from getting the better of her. The brunette groaned, wishing she'd saved her last breakfast bar for that moment.  
It took another two hours, but just as the sun was preparing to set, Courtney spotted a town appearing in the distance. They were still a while away, so they quickened their pace. Halfway there they had to turned to flashlight, which worried them greatly, but there was no other way about it. Coming into the town they found the floor littered with broken glass and throw-away needles. The last thing they needed was one of them to stand on something and sustain an injury, let alone sustain a foot injury. Without the ability to walk, they couldn't get anywhere.  
Courtney wanted to find a decent house to spend the night in, but Gwen tugged her into the first one she saw. They needed cover.  
The older girl set to drawing the drapes while the younger raided the kitchen. Courtney found her happy place. The kitchen was almost fully stocked, as if someone had been preparing to hide and wait out the storm, but got swept up in it against their will. She pulled open a freezer draw and the first thing she saw was a loaf of bread. Courtney could feel tears tickling the corners of her eyes. It had been so long since she had had a decent sandwich, it was all she could think of in that moment.  
Once Gwen was sure the house was locked up tighter than Fort Knox, she met her friend in the kitchen. Courtney had pulled open every drawer and cupboard, and raided every shelf she could find. The kitchen was a jungle of food-mostly not in date-and Courtney was at the heart in it. She had pulled out two piece of defrosted bread and placed them on the counter. Reaching for the butter, she spread a thin layer on each slice, careful not to catch any of the growing mold, chewing on her lips to stop the drool. Usually, the brunette would have gone straight for the lettuce and then the ham, but both were long past their expiration dates, so she settled for six thick slices of cheese covered in half a tin of tuna. Courtney slammed the top piece of bread on top so fast it rattled the counter. Gwen watched from the kitchen door, fighting back a smile as Courtney sunk her teeth into her creation. She was practically inhaling it instead of savoring, but Gwen couldn't blame her. She had soon made her own way over to Courtney and was making her own sandwich, and it was the best sandwich she had ever eaten. 

 

Both girls were bloated as they laid in bed, rubbing their full stomachs and muttering about the pain. They couldn't eat very much because they had gone so long without proper food, but they had stuffed as much food into their open and waiting mouths as possible because they got nauseous.  
"I never want to eat again," Gwen complained, letting a loud belch out. Courtney pulled a face, but couldn't help but agree.  
They both drifted to sleep quite easily, not even bothering to unpack the sleeping bags. They passed out side by side on the pullout sofa bed, Gwen's hand resting on Courtney's leg and Courtney's arm stretched out beneath both of their heads.  
The following morning, when Courtney woke up, her head tucked beneath Gwen's chin, she couldn't help but feel rested. It had been a long time since she had slept through the whole night. They had both fallen asleep before they could decide who should stay up and take first watch, but the house appeared undisturbed.  
The brunette stretched, edging her way along the bed, not wanting to wake up Gwen. She looked like she was finally having a peaceful sleep instead of the nightmares that had continued to plague her. Though she never talked about it, Courtney knew they were about her brother and Duncan. Gwen would often call out for one of them, and Courtney felt useless watching her do so. It was nice to see her companion sleeping contently.  
The curtains were still drawn, but a sliver of sunlight had made its way below and was spanning across the floor. It felt warm under Courtney's cold toes and she sighed happily. This was definitely the best house they had come across so far, but no matter how badly she wished she could stay in it, Gwen would no doubt drag them out for the day. She still had her mind set on the island of Newfoundland, and Courtney had given up trying to convince her otherwise.  
Courtney strolled into the kitchen and made another sandwich, and it was still the best tasting sandwich she had ever had. She ate it as she explored the rest of the house.  
Upstairs were three bedrooms: one master bedroom and two children's rooms. It was hard to look in the children's rooms, because this house had no doubt been one of the infected ones. It was a horrid thing to think of and it only brought back unwanted memories for Courtney.  
She shut the doors to the unwanted bedrooms and entered the master bedroom. It was considerably small, but the house itself wasn't very big. Courtney subconsciously turned the family photos on the nightstand away, not daring to remind herself of happier times, even if they weren't her own. It was times like this when she missed her parents and her friends, and the way her life used to be. Being in a family home-a small and cozy family home-she felt the gaping hole inside her chest. Everything that had once been there had been ripped out as Courtney's had been thrown into this zombie filled void.  
Distantly, Courtney could hear a low grumbling. She held her breath, but it wasn't zombie noises, nor was it anything from inside the house. Courtney wasn't sure, but it sounded a lot like a car engine. She dived over to the window, carefully peaking through the gap in the closed drapes. She couldn't see anything, but the rumbling was getting louder.  
Courtney rushed back down the staircase, yelling, "Gwen! Gwen!" The other teenager girl mumbled something incoherently. "I think there's someone coming!"  
"What?" Gwen asked, slightly more alert.  
"I think there's people outside in a car!" Courtney squealed. She didn't know to be excited or scared, but this could very well have been the rescue they had been waiting for. "Come on, get up!" The brunette licked her hand and smoothed down some of Gwen's unruly hair in a motherly way before she got shooed away.  
Courtney didn't dare open the door without Gwen, just in case it was some sort of trap. Courtney was a strong fighter, even more so with her baseball bat, but she knew that their fighting force was at its greatest together, especially with Gwen's handgun. But the way she was bouncing up and down, basically vibrating on the spot, she didn't appear to be anymore than an excited child.  
Gwen finished pulling on her combat boots and met Courtney at the front door. Taking a peek through the peep hole, she couldn't see any immediate danger. She grabbed the handgun from her pocket before unlocking the door, just as a precaution. Courtney gripped her trusty baseball bat tighter, raising it above her head, ready to swing. Slowly, Gwen pulled the front door open, peeking through the gap. Sure enough, coming down the street at a casual five miles an hour was a black land rover. The sun was reflecting off its surface, obviously it had been recently cleaned, and all the windows were tinted black. Gwen gripped the gun with both hands, just in case. They couldn't see who was inside the car, or if they were going to be friendly or not, all either of the girls could do was pray that the zombies hadn't learnt how to drive yet.  
The land rover came to a halt two houses down, in the middle of the street. Courtney stayed close to Gwen as she walked out to the sidewalk, ready to greet whoever was there. The passenger door popped open and out came a young man, hands in the air. He was a little older than Gwen, maybe approaching twenty-one, but he had a boyish grin on his face. He wore a black tank top and black camo pants, with a pair of designer Ray-Bans perched on his nose, shielding his eyes from the morning glare. His skin tone matched Courtney's almost perfectly, and when he stepped a bit closer Gwen noticed the bull skull necklace around his neck.  
"I mean you no harm." Gwen figured it was a better sentence than 'we come in peace'. Courtney lowered her bat in an instant. Not because she believed him, but because his voice melted through the air and hit her hard. He had a thick Spanish accent, something she had always wished she'd inherited from her mother, but never had. It made her muscles relax and her brain forget what panicking was.  
Gwen nudged her foot against Courtney's, fighting her starstruck look. They both looked at each other for a split second before turning back to the stranger. Gwen kept a tight grip on her gun, but didn't raise it. He didn't seem to be a threat, but she was overly cautious.  
"My name is Alejandro," the stranger continued on when neither of the girls replied to him. Gwen could see his eyes lingering on Courtney, staring directly at the patchy birthmark on her right forearm."I am from a survivor camp in the next town over. I'm out here looking for other survivors."  
"We're fine on our own," Gwen shot back, her eyes slits on her face. She noticed the tone of voice he was using, the one her father had always used on her mother back before he left. It was the 'I- want-something' voice, as Gwen came to know it. Her father was always trying to weasel his way back into the family, and though a strong woman, Gwen's mother could never say no to him. Gwen knew from experience that people who used this tone were not trustworthy people.  
"Please, come with me for an hour," he said. "Just to make sure you're fed and well. No injuries. I'd hate to see two beautiful chicas like yourselves be in any discomfort."  
Courtney was about to agree, but Gwen cut across, "We're perfectly fine."  
"You don't appear to be a doctor, hermosa," Alejandro told her. "You could have some internal injuries you do not know about. Please, come with me, for my own well-being. I don't know what I would do if I left two woman out in the desert like this."  
The younger girl turned to Courtney with a pleading look on her face. Gwen knew that Courtney wanted nothing more than to be safe, and if there were a colony of survivors, this could really be her chance.  
"Gwen, please..." The brunette whispered. "We can just get checked over, and have a hot meal, and then we can go straight back to travelling to Newfoundland."  
Gwen sighed, knowing that Courtney was in the right. Though she didn't trust Alejandro, getting a medical check and an actual meal should have been more of a priority to her.  
They both turned back to Alejandro and the land rover, and Gwen said, "Let us grab our things."


	5. Where It Doesn't Get Better

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When everything seems perfect, not everyone believes it.

The driver, whose name was never mentioned, took the two girls, plus Alejandro, straight back to the survivors base. It wasn't a particularly long drive, but to Gwen, whose stomach wouldn't stop knotting around itself, it felt like another five months of fear. She didn't throw her trust around very easily, she was always cautious, and there was just something about Alejandro that didn't fit into place. Courtney, however, seemed smitten with him. She spoke to him with ease about what had happened over the past few months, opening up more to him than she ever had with Gwen. He sat in the passenger seat while Gwen and Courtney were sat in the back. Their eyes were meeting through the rear view mirror, and now he had removed his sunglasses, Courtney was acting even more like a love struck teenager than before. His eyes were a vibrant green, slippery like an eel. Every time his gaze landed on Gwen, she stared him out with a frown on her face, and he put his attention back on Courtney.   
The base wasn't quite what the girls had imagined. Gwen had been expecting a rundown supermarket with a couple of pop-up beds with maybe a trained nurse and some large men to stand guard at the door. This was something else entirely.   
The building was square in shape, standing at six floors tall and made entirely of red brick. It had once been a hospital, only known by the signs that pointed in directions towards ER and reception. It was falling apart, like every other building in Canada.  
The land rover pulled up outside the ambulance bay and Alejandro jumped out, opening up the back door for Courtney to get out too. Gwen opened her own door, not caring for his chivalry. The three of them walked up the building while the driver sped off. Alejandro typed in a security code at the door and then held it open for the pair of them to go through. Once inside, they were greeted by a large man who instructed them to drop all weapons into a plastic grey tray, like airport security.   
Gwen refused to hand over her gun, but Alejandro told her she would get it back when she left and not allowing weapons into the building. Reluctantly, she handed it over. Courtney handed over her baseball bat too, and a quick check of their backpacks was done before they were stored away as well. Gwen was starting to doubt herself for coming with Alejandro, but one look at Courtney and she knew she made the right decision. She hated seeing her friend hungry and cold, in desperate need of a long, hot bath, but not being able to have one. Gwen didn't really care for herself, but there was something about travelling with someone else that had boosted her empathy and sympathy levels.   
After the security check, they were led into a room off to the side and greeted by a large group of young females, all dressed similarly to Alejandro in plain black clothing. No one looked older than their mid-twenties, but that didn't comfort Gwen. She had never been good with people her own age and would much rather this be an old folks home than a nightclub.   
"These ladies will take good care of you," Alejandro told Courtney and Gwen. "I'll be back in an hour to give you a tour of the place." Courtney gave him a smile of thanks, while Gwen searched the room for any familiar faces. No one stood out to her.   
A tall woman stepped forward. She didn't look like the oldest, but she was definitely the one in charge. Her features were Asian, with bitter grey eyes and long, dark hair that reached her waist, kept out of her face with a simple red band tying it behind her neck. She didn't introduce herself, just gave both girls a once over before turning back to the huddle of other females.   
"Take them through to be showered," was all she said before leaving the room in the same direction as Alejandro had.  
Gwen's frown deepened, not liking the way things were around here already.   
The other women quickly disbanded, most heading off through a side door while two stayed behind. One grabbed Courtney by the hand with a happy smile on her face, Courtney looked at Gwen as she was tugged away. Gwen wanted to protest, but the other young girl, the one that Gwen guessed was here to take her for a shower, spoke up, "Don't worry, she's just gonna get cleaned up." She nodded her head towards another door in the back of the room. "Come on, you smell, too." Gwen raised an eyebrow at her brashness, though it had been said in a joking way. A small smile played on her lips as she followed the other girl through the door.   
They were around the same age, but that was where the similarities stopped. Gwen's hair was shorter after she'd hacked it off with a butter knife not long after she'd set off towards Newfoundland island because it was getting in her way, and it was in desperate need of dying again. Her natural dark brown coloring had definitely taken over, though her tips were still in black and teal stripes. This other girl had bright red hair, and not the natural kind. She must have dyed it recently because there was no indication as to what her natural color was. She was taller than Gwen too, though Gwen was considerably short for her age. She was also a lot friendlier and happier.   
The red haired girl had led her into a rather large bathroom. It was fully furnished with a toilet, bathtub, shower cubicle and sink. There were shelves upon shelves of different products-though they all looked to be labelled as medical-and towels. Along the wall to the right there was a long mirror and beneath it, in the corner beside the door, was a white leather sofa, where the girl had placed herself. She gestured to the facilities, obvious that she wasn't going going to leave while Gwen was there.   
Gwen walked over to the towel shelf and grabbed a few. They weren't the best quality, but she wasn't expecting them to be since they were hospital towels. She walked over the shower cubicle and dropped the towels to the floor. She looked back over to the girl who was entranced with a cell phone she held close to her face, tapping away furiously on it. Gwen hadn't seen a cell phone in a very long time, and wondered if the girl could still get reception or was just playing games.   
Gwen slipped into the cubicle and pulled the curtain around her before pulling off her clothes. She hadn't changed them in five days, which was when she used up her last clean outfit. While running from a few zombies, she and Courtney had ended up slipping down a muddy embankment and had ending up stinking. They'd found the nearest house and washed off their skin in the sink, not daring to have a shower, and changed into the one pair of spare clothes they had each.   
She tossed her clothes onto the floor by the towels and starting fiddling with some dials on the box on the wall until she found the on switch and the the right temperature for her. She couldn't remember the last time she had showered or washed her hair. She'd forgotten how good it felt.   
"I'll get you some clean clothes and...burn these," the other girl said from right outside the curtain. Gwen jumped slightly, but gave a meek 'okay'. She was too busy enjoying the hot water to care. She heard the door shut and teen minutes later it opened again. "I'm Zoey," said the girl and Gwen could see her silhouette placing what must have been the clothes down on the floor.   
"Gwen."  
"Nice to meet you, Gwen," Zoey spoke with a smile. Gwen couldn't see her, but she was too cheery to not be smiling. "Where did Al pick you up to?"  
"I uh...I don't know exactly," she replied honestly. "Not too far from here. The next town over, I guess."   
"Me too." Zoey had moved back to the sofa and Gwen could hear the tapping of the phone. "Me and my boyfriend ended up there after we were chased by the infected. Al and Heather showed up, shot the infected and saved us. That was three months ago, and Mike and I have been here ever since."   
Gwen switched off the shower before she had to share her own story with Zoey. There wasn't much she wanted to tell, and she did consider the possibility that she could have been a spy.   
"Who's Heather?" Gwen asked, patting herself down with a towel.   
"The one you just met," Zoey replied. "The bossy one." Gwen remembered her well, the bitch that she was, commanding the others to wash down Courtney and Gwen.   
Courtney. She had escaped Gwen's mind for a while when she was cleansing, but now she couldn't shake the worrying thought that Courtney was not okay. She was more vulnerable that Gwen, or at least that was the way Gwen saw it. Like a child that needed protecting from the nightmares.   
"Heather was one of the first survivors here." Zoey was still talking. "She and Alejandro pretty much built this place to what it is, so they're kind of like the leaders. They boss everyone around like they own the place, though....so, just be careful to not get on their bad sides."  
"Don't worry," Gwen huffed, struggling into the new clothes she's been given. There were black camo pants like her old ones, only they were in a much better condition with no holes or mud marks. The tank top was a little too tight fitted for her liking, but she couldn't exactly complain. These people were giving her free clean clothes, something she had learnt to be grateful for. "We'll be out of here before sunset."  
"Ha!" Zoey exclaimed loudly as Gwen pushed back the shower cubicle curtain. The red-haired girl was sat back on the leather sofa, cellphone held tightly in a one-handed grip while the other arm was stretched behind her head. "Good luck with that one."  
"W-What?"  
"No one leaves here," Zoey says, though she doesn't seem very bothered about the fact.   
"But Alejandro said-"  
"And you believed him?" Their eyes met across the room and Gwen suddenly knew that this girl was more trustworthy than Alejandro was. She was sweet and innocent, just another lost soul caught up in the storm of the infection. "Since you're going to be here a while, here's some advice; don't trust anything Alejandro says. Heather will tell you straight up what she thinks of you, but Al...Al twists things to fit his way. Heather's a bitch, Alejandro's manipulative." Gwen stared at her puzzlingly. "You'll understand soon enough."  
"I'm not staying here," Gwen said, though not exactly to Zoey. She was still trying to convince herself this had been a good idea. "Me and Courtney are leaving as soon as possible."

 

Courtney hadn't felt this clean since before she had gone on the run. It was never safe in the houses she had stayed at in her hometown, and the school didn't have a shower for her to use, so it was minute-long scrub downs in the bathroom sink. Now she was fully showered and wearing brand new clothes. Her hair was no longer thick and greasy, it was neatly combed and pulled back into a low ponytail. One of the girls had filed her nails so they weren't jagged anymore, though she wasn't a very talkative person. There was definitely an obstruction between Courtney and the other young women that lived in the survivor base, but all Courtney hoped was that Gwen was feeling better about herself too.   
Speaking of her friend, they hadn't seen each other in two hours. They'd been pulled into two different rooms and in Courtney's she had been cleaned up. There was a nervous feeling in the pit of her stomach that Gwen wasn't being treated the same way she was, but it was easily knocked away when she saw Alejandro's smiling face coming down the hallway.   
"Afternoon, chica," he greeted warmly. "I almost didn't recognize you now that you look so much prettier without all the dirt on your face." He ran a sly finger over her cheek, brushing away a stray strand. "How was everything?"  
"Great," Courtney beamed. The way he looked at her made her want to do nothing more than smile for the rest of eternity just because he had given her the time of day, let alone actually touched her face. "I've been completely pampered."  
"That's what I like to hear." He held his arm out to her. "May I escort you to the dining hall for lunch?"   
Courtney bit her lip to stop herself from giggling. She nodded her head and took Alejandro's arm, allowing him to walk her in the direction of the dining hall. All thoughts of what was going on around her had left her head and all she could focus on was this touch on her skin. Maybe it was because she had gone so long without human contact, or because her heart was still broken over Duncan, all Courtney knew was her troubles melted away when Alejandro was near her.   
They entered the dining hall and Courtney was overwhelmed by how many people were sitting around, eating and chatting, almost like it was lunch time at school. She couldn't tell exactly how many people were in there, but there were at least sixty, all ranging from middle-aged right through to young children around five or six.   
Alejandro directed Courtney towards the food section where there was one long station covered in piping hot food with the steam roaming upwards, blocking the clean air with that of many different smells. Courtney's stomach rumbled and she was practically drooling.   
"Courtney!" She turned at the sound of her voice. Gwen was waving her over from a table on the far side of the room. Courtney waved back and Alejandro lowered his lips to her ear, "Go on, I'll bring some food over for both of us." She gave him another thankful smile and a lingering stare as she walked away. The closer she got to Gwen the faster her pace became. She noticed her friend was not alone but with a girl with bright red hair. Her focus was on a small, out-dated cellphone while Gwen was biting her lip in worry. Courtney sat down across form the pair of them. "Why are you here with him?"  
"What?" It wasn't the first thing she had expected Gwen to say. "You mean Alejandro? He escorted me here." Gwen's eyes narrowed down, not impressed with the answer. "Why, what's wrong?"  
"Don't trust him, Court," she replied bitterly. The brunette raised an eyebrow. Was she really going to play this game? Even though Gwen looked a lot cleaner, her attitude was still raw with hatred. Hatred for anyone she didn't deem trustworthy, just like she hadn't deemed Courtney trustworthy when they had first met. That was Gwen's problem; she never gave anyone a chance. At least, that was Courtney's opinion of her.   
"Alejandro has been nothing but kind since he found us," Courtney argued, careful not to raise her voice in case of eavesdroppers. Zoey snorted. Courtney glared at the other girl. "Something you want to say?"  
But before Zoey could tell Courtney anything, Alejandro took position in the seat beside Courtney, handing her a plate of mashed potatoes and sausages covered in gravy. Back in the normal world, Courtney wouldn't have looked twice at this kind of meal, but in this one she was practically inhaling it.   
"You ladies don't mind if I join you?" He asked politely, looking at each of them around the table.   
"Where's Heather today?" Zoey asked, knowing that he usually sat with her and the higher ups during meal times.   
"Heather and Scott are working in the lab," he replied honestly. Zoey's face glossed over for a second and both girls caught it before she could turn her attention back down to the cell phone. "How is he today?"  
Zoey shrugged, her shoulders hitting her low pigtails. "Same as always."   
Courtney and Gwen shot each other a look across the table, neither knowing what they were talking about. It sounded like a personal conversation and it was obviously upsetting Zoey, who was back to tapping away at the keyboard. Alejandro was digging into his mash potatoes, but his eyes remained on the girl across the table.   
"So, Al," Gwen spoke through the tension. "What exactly do you do around here?"  
The Latino's face changed, almost as if his potatoes had suddenly gone sour. He cleared his throat. "Alejandro. Never Al," he told her resentfully. "And I guess I do a bit of everything around here." He turned his attention fully to Gwen. "I mostly just check everything and everyone runs smoothly and fix any problems that arise."  
They four of them sat in silence for a while. Alejandro and Courtney picked at their food while Zoey never let her eyes wander from her phone again. Gwen had her attention on her nails, chewing and biting them after they had been filed. Her eyes would carefully shoot to Alejandro sometimes and other times they would watch Courtney instead. She knew she had to warn her friend before something bad happened to her. Over the almost two weeks they had spent together, Gwen had formed a caring side for Courtney. Though she never would have thought is possible, she really didn't want Courtney to get hurt by anything- zombies or otherwise.   
By the time the plates had been scarped clean of every bite, Gwen had bitten every nail down to the nub. Courtney was looking full and satisfied.   
"I guess we'll be making our leave," Gwen said, getting up from her seat. "Wouldn't want to over stay our welcome." She tried to plaster on a happy smile, but it was tight and forced.   
"Oh no," Alejandro said, licking his lips. "I insist you stay, have a proper nights rest before you head out on your travels again."  
"We couldn't-" Gwen tried to say, but Courtney decided to cut across.   
"One night wouldn't hurt," the younger girl told her, her big eyes pleading. Gwen stared her down, but it was no use. She sighed, sitting herself back down. This was going to be a long stay.


	6. Where It Gets Serious

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Everything seems perfect at the base....and then we meet Mike.

The dormitory was dark, too dark. Gwen kept tossing and turning, scaring herself with what she believed to be the outlined shadow of an infected. There was quiet beeping coming from down the hall, and Gwen insisted on telling herself that was what was keeping her awake, not her over active imagination wondering what was going on with Courtney. They had been taken to separate rooms instead of the same one, and though she knew she was only down the hall, she couldn't help but wonder if she was in some sort of danger.   
Gwen sat up in bed, smoothing down her hair. Her arm was sore from where the nurse had stuck a needle in without her permission. She said it was some antibacterial thing, but Gwen was not convinced. She didn't trust any of these people- well, except maybe Zoey. Zoey was more of a go-with-the-flow kind of person, and Gwen knew she wouldn't have stayed in this place without a good reason. Though she never said anything, Gwen knew the good reason was whoever she kept texting on her phone. She was the only person with a cell phone, which struck Gwen was odd. Alejandro never said anything about it, so she assumed he had issued it. No one else had a cell phone, as far as she had seen.   
Zoey's light snoring could be heard from the bed next to Gwen's. There were four beds in total as this had once been a hospital room on one of the west wards. Patients with various diseases had slept in these beds, and Gwen just prayed she wasn't going to catch something from spending so much time in the hospital.   
The other two beds were occupied by other young girls that Gwen didn't know. Very few people were friendly in the base, which did make Gwen extra suspicious about things. But, to everyone else, she ust have come across as unfriendly too. Trust was a hard thing to come by in this new world.   
She had the bed closest to the window, so when she rolled over and sat up, she had the perfect view of the front of the hospital. She could see a few men out the there with large guns. She couldn't make out individual people, but it their silver guns that glinted under the full moon made it kind of obvious.   
By the time Gwen got comfortable in the bed, the sun was starting to come in through the Venetian blinds. The teenager was not happy with not getting any sleep, but she knew she would always be able to sleep the following night when she wasn't in the hospital anymore.   
The more she thought about leaving the more Zoey's words would play in her mind.   
'No one leaves here.'  
It didn't sound very promising, and it was definitely not an option for Gwen and Courtney to stay at the survivor base. They had a plan to get to Newfoundland island and Gwen was going to stick to that plan even if it killed her. There was no way she was going to wait around at the hospital with Alejandro the manipulative, just waiting for a run in with Heather the bitch.   
"You awake?" Zoey called. Gwen twisted her head to the side to see the redhead looking at her. The other two girls were already up and moving, getting dressed for their day. Zoey stretched out in bed a bit before swinging her legs over the side. It was the first time Gwen had seen her without her cellphone attached to her hand.   
She watched Zoey for a moment, noticing the sadness on her face, before rolling out of bed herself. There was a fresh set of black clothes on the nightstand that she had been given last night. She hastily changed and followed Zoey out of the room. Courtney was waiting for her at the end of the hallway. The brunette had a wide grin on her face when she spotted Gwen, giving her a quick one-armed hug before the three teenagers made their descent down the staircase.   
Gwen was in a little shock because she and Courtney had never hugged before- they'd actually barely touched before. But there was something about the small gesture that warmed Gwen's heart. Last night was the longest they had spent apart since before they had met. It felt strange to Gwen to not have to constantly worry about not only herself, but another person too. Though, she was still worrying...  
"Where's your cell, Zo?" Courtney asked when they reached the cafeteria.   
"Al took it," she replied somberly. Gwen had quickly learnt that everyone called him Al behind his back, but never to his face. He really hated the nickname, but never opened up about why. "Said something about checking it over." Zoey shrugged like it was no big deal, but if Alejandro had taken Gwen's cell phone she would have killed him. Gwen knew he was going to go through her personal text messages, whoever they were to. Zoey seemed more upset about the fact that she couldn't text the person than that Alejandro had taken the phone from her.  
The three of them grabbed a plastic tray and a bottle of orange juice, heading down the line towards the hot cooked food. Courtney was starting to drool as she scooped two slices of bacon onto her plate followed by two sausages and two eggs. Gwen watched with a smile on her face, glad to see that Courtney had an appetite. She grabbed a bowl of oatmeal instead of the full breakfast and followed Zoey over to the same table they had been sat at yesterday for both lunch and dinner.   
Zoey's face was downcast for most of her meal. Courtney and Gwen sat in silence, chowing down on their own breakfast. No one noticed the three people approaching.   
"Do you mind if I sit here?" Zoey's eyebrows furrowed and her attention turned to the male teenager that was standing behind the plastic chair beside Courtney, but when their eyes met all of the sadness and hurt left her expression.   
"Mike," she gasped, rushing to her feet. She threw her arms around his neck, reaching on her tiptoes to press a fierce kiss against his lips. He kissed her back, but didn't move to hold her. Gwen noticed the military handcuffs that were set tightly around his wrists.   
Mike was about six foot tall with the body of a twig. He wore a ripped blue t-shirt and dark washed jeans. He stood out against everyone else with their black camo pants and black tank tops, but he didn't seem to care. Everyone else in the cafeteria was staring at the young couple as they continued to kiss, whispering words to each other in a not so secret fashion.   
Zoey moved away for a second, allowing Mike to shift his body. She slipped under his looped arms and hugged him closer than before. Mike was smiling as he held his girlfriend, as if he'd never thought he'd be able to do it again, but finally was- judging by the handcuffs, Gwen guessed that was the actual case.   
"Don't cry, Zo," he guffawed, removing his face from her neck to give her a peck on the nose. Zoey wiped at her eyes, something Mike wished he could have done without the shackles on his wrists hurting her. They were both smiling widely at each other.   
Heather cleared her throat and Mike flashed her a grin too. The Asian girl rolled her eyes and directed the other teenage boy beside her-the one with the natural orange hair that that couldn't stop staring at Courtney-to get the three of them food. He nodded his head absentmindedly and turned away, not moving his eyes off Courtney until he stumbled into a chair. She rolled her eyes at him, but Gwen was sure she saw a small blush when she turned back to her food.   
Mike took the seat beside Courtney, and Zoey sat on his lap, her arms still draped loosely around his neck. Heather dragged up a fifth chair and placed it at the head of the table next to Mike, sitting herself down.   
What caught Gwen's eyes was the end of a blood soaked bandage peeking out from under Mike's shirt sleeve. No one else seemed to notice, so she didn't say anything.   
Zoey wiped her eyes once again. "Guys, this is my boyfriend Mike," she said with a wide smile.   
"I'd be kind of worried if he wasn't your boyfriend," Gwen joked, referring to the kissing and teary reunion, and Zoey smiled wider.   
"Mike, this is Gwen and Courtney." She pointed to each of them as she said their names. "They arrived here yesterday," Zoey explained to her boyfriend, who took in every word she said with a look of admiration.   
The other teenage boy arrived back at the table with a tray of three plates and took Zoey's empty seat. Not long after the food had been distributed, Alejandro had dragged a sixth chair up the table, on the opposite end to Heather. He had a wide grin on his face as he watched Zoey and Mike interacting. Gwen eyed him suspiciously.   
"So, Mike," Gwen started, sucking her breakfast spoon clean. "What's with the cuffs?"   
Not just the table, but the whole room fell to silence, and Courtney shot Gwen a look of puzzlement. Something strange was going on at the base, that was for sure. Lists of conspiracy theories danced in Gwen's head, but none of them seem quite right.   
Mike coughed into his shoulder, "Umm..." He mumbled. "I-Uh...I..." But he couldn't quite form the words. He was obviously not used to explaining his situation to other people.   
Gwen raised her eyebrow at him, but Alejandro saved Mike from further embarrassment.   
"Mike...has a problem," the Spaniard explained. Heather snorted behind her coffee mug, downing the last of the drink.   
"What kind of problem?" Gwen asked.   
"Yeah, Al, this should be good," Heather smirked, turning to look at him. His eyes narrowed down when she said his name, but he didn't scold her for it like he had Gwen, giving said girl the impression that there was something between them.   
"Scott can probably tell you better than I can," Alejandro said, turning to the orange haired boy. All eyes turned to him and he started to shake from all the attention.   
"He...he's infected."   
The silence that had once filled the room was now replaced by a new break-out of whispers that tsunamied their way across the whole cafeteria. "And this is why we don't speak of it," Alejandro mumbled.   
"You don't look infected," Courtney said, turning to face Mike, but it wasn't a look of shock or disbelief, or even one that suspected them of lying about his infection. Courtney looked at Mike as if she wanted to know more.   
Zoey had her face nestled into Mike's neck, her hands trembling and her eyes starting to flood again. Gwen suddenly felt the need to want to comfort her, almost as if it was Courtney crying.   
"It's...it's confusing," Mike explained to the two newbies. "I was bitten as we were being saved from the town, but they brought me here anyway and...well, I didn't really turn the normal way." Gwen noted he was rubbing his thumbs, which she guessed was a substitute for rubbing his neck nervously, which he couldn't do. "Sometimes I'm, you know, normal...and other times...I-I'm not...so normal."  
"Jekyll and Hyde," Courtney mumbled to herself before turning her attention back to Mike. "...That's a thing?" Mike just shrugged. Gwen caught Heather smirking at Alejandro, who was still shooting daggers her way. Scott was still drooling over Courtney and Courtney was trying to process what she had just heard. Gwen was too busy gouging everyone else's reactions to know how she felt about it herself. "Is there a way other people could be like that?" The brunette continued talking. "And can it be cured if there is?"  
No one said anything, and the uneasy silence proved to Gwen what she thought she had already known. "What is it?" Courtney frowned at Scott, who had finally turned his attention away. "What are you not telling us?"  
"Umm...Courtney," Alejandro said, ignoring Gwen's question. "Why don't you come down to the lab with us and we can explain it to you, since you seem to be having a hard time processing this?" Courtney was not having a hard time processing anything, and Gwen could smell the plot beginning to thicken.   
Courtney nodded her head, not meeting anyone's eye until Gwen added, "I'll come too." The brunette nodded her head again. She usually wasn't this quiet and Gwen could tell by the way she wasn't babbling on about something that this Mike thing was affecting her more than it should have. "And after that we can make our leave." Alejandro looked nervous, but nodded his head and everyone got up from the table.   
The group of seven left the cafeteria, all eyes on them. It was bad enough being the newbies in the base, but now they also had the freak show experiment along for the ride.   
It was a long walk to the lab. Alejandro and Heather took the lead, muttering to each other quietly, and what seemed to be angrily, too. Mike held his arms awkwardly to one side so that he could hold hands with Zoey. Scott was still staring at Courtney, which she returned with pointed glares of hatred. Gwen trailed behind the rest of them, over thinking her situation.   
The lab was located in the basement where there had once been a quarantine bay. It consisted of a white room with two hospital beds hidden behind a shatter-proof half glass wall. On the far end of the glass wall was a heavy metal door with bolts and a security pad while against the wall, beneath the glass, were several desks and chairs. The rest of the lab was also made of desks and chairs, with a few laptops and computers. Hanging around were a couple of geeky looking guys, their eyes glued to computer screens as they tapped away on the keyboards. In one of the chairs beneath the window was an older blonde woman. She looked around her older mid-twenties, and was probably the oldest person Gwen had seen at the facility. She was playing Snake on an ancient Nokia, but quickly turned the power off when she saw the group arrive. There was a small smirk on her face and she was also staring directly at Courtney- as if Scott doing it wasn't creepy enough.  
The group walked over to the far end of the room where Heather punched the code into the keypad to unlock the door while Scott took the cuffs from Mike. As soon as they were off the zombie boy threw his arms around his girlfriend. Zoey started sobbing into his chest again as he stroked her hair soothingly.   
Gwen bit her lip as she watched them. Falling in love in this messed up world didn't seem like a very good idea. Forming bonds and friendships didn't seem like a good idea. She turned her attention to Courtney who couldn't bring herself to watch the scene. Gwen's heart pounded in her chest, suddenly worrying for Courtney's safety all over again. She had grown so attached to the young girl over the past two weeks, she didn't know what she would do without her anymore. Maybe she was way in over her head with this partnership they had.   
"I love you," Mike mumbled.   
"I love you too," Zoey choked. They gave each other one last peck on the lips before Mike led himself into his prison. Heather handed him a cell phone and he promised Zoey that he would text her before the door locked behind him.   
Zoey wiped her eyes dry as Heather handed her her own cell phone back. The red haired girl made her way back over to the other side of the room, taking a seat beside the blonde that had been there when they had entered.   
"Courtney, Gwen, this is Blainely," Alejandro introduced. Blainely gave them a sly smile, her eyes still watching Courtney carefully. Scott and Heather had taken seats on the other side of the room, but Gwen could still feel the rednecks eyes on her friend. "Blainely is one of the leaders in trying to find a cure for not just Mike, but the infected as a whole." He sighed, taking a seat next to Blainely. "We haven't been...entirely honest with you since your arrival."  
"You don't say," Gwen snapped, her pent-up anger slowly seeping through her cracks. Courtney placed her hand on Gwen's arm, but she didn't feel too much better.   
"Blainely here used to work for the government," Alejandro continued, gesturing to Blainely.   
"You look too young to work for the government," Courtney remarked.   
"It's amazing where you can get with a pair of these," she replied, grabbing her breasts with a cheeky wink. Alejandro rolled his eyes as if he was used to her saying such things. Gwen and Courtney stared at her in disgust. "But as Alejandro was saying, I used to work for the government in the medical research department. About two decades ago, long before I was even working there, though, there was a similar infectious outbreak in Australia. Some scientist from across the globe, including Canadian scientists, worked on a cure for it, but never found one. Eventually, after a month or two, the disease went away by itself. However, the scientists insisted on working out a solution just in case it ever happened again. And it did."  
Courtney collapsed into a chair next to Zoey and Gwen looked at her curiously. She wondered what was going on inside her head, as she was obviously not on the same train of thought as Gwen was.   
Blainely continued on, "Almost six months ago, an outbreak was recorded near the research facility and it started to spread faster than what it took to contain it. But, the scientists were positive that this time they had a cure for it. Most of the scientists are dead or badly infected now. I got my hands on the file before I escaped and...and it turns out the cure was in the form of a child. She had been created specifically for the sake of her genes being able to cure the infection, and though it was never tested, the scientists are ninety-six percent positive it would work." Blainely's eyes looked between Courtney and Gwen, making sure they were following along so far. "The problem is, when I went to the address given of the child, the area had already been infected and she was no where to be found."   
Scott tossed a brown folder onto the table between Blainely and Alejandro. The blonde woman opened it up and pulled out a photograph of a young child. She was about six years old, clearly Hispanic, dressed in a pink ballet outfit with a patchy birthmark on her right forearm.


	7. Where It Looks Like It's Getting Better, But It Just Gets Worse

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Courtney learns the truth, and Gwen plans their escape.

Courtney was shaking, hunched over with her hands resting on her knees. She was struggling for breath, but not from running. Her mind was too over crowded with thoughts that she could barely remember how to breathe. She didn't know how long she had been leaning against the wall, all she knew was that the picture was no doubtedly her. After that she had told everyone she had needed some air and bolted from the room too fast to even hear everyone calling her name. She didn't care. It was too much for her to take in for her to care.   
She was genetically created? Her parents must have forgotten to tell her that. She was the savior that could save mankind? It must have slipped their minds.   
Courtney was vaguely aware of voices walking past, but no one gave her a second glance. They obviously hadn't had access to the information from the lab. Everyone else in the base thought she was just some weird newbie, not the cure to the disease that had forced them all into this hospital in the first place.   
The cure.  
It seemed like a stupid thing to think. It had been five long months of fearing the unknown and she had had the cure with her-in her-all along. This all seemed like some prolonged nightmare that was reaching the climax, the scariest part before the big finish. But Courtney couldn't see the end in sight and this cure nonsense didn't seem real enough.   
"H-Hey." Courtney raised her head to see Scott-the annoying kid that wouldn't quit staring at her-standing awkwardly a few feet away. "How you feeling?"  
"How am I feeling?" The brunette asked in disgust, as if it was the stupidest thing she had ever heard, but when Scott took a step back from her, her features lightened and she sighed. "I-I don't know...I don't know how to feel about this."   
Scott didn't reply. He didn't seem to understand what it was like to have this much responsibility on his shoulders and how frightening it truly was for Courtney. Then again, no one could possibly understand what she was going through. No one else had the whole of humanity resting on their shoulders, or so how it felt to Courtney.   
"I'll just..."  
"No wait!" Courtney called out. "I don't...I don't want to be alone." Scott blinked at her a few times before she dropped to the floor, trying to get herself comfortable. The orange haired boy sat down next to her, but careful not to get too close. "This is just so serious, you know? I've always been such a strong person."  
"Me too," Scott piped up, earning Courtney's attention. He didn't look very strong. "Strong as a rat, me." He lifted his arms, flexing his biceps, trying his best to show off.   
"Don't you mean strong as a rat?"  
"Nah, I was raised on a farm. Rats are nasty little critters, but they're strong. Strong enough to keep coming back for more of this." He flexed biceps again, which did earn a giggle from Courtney, before her face fell back into a serious way of things.   
Courtney continued to talk about the matter at hand, "I mean, I've always been mature person, always doing things ahead of my age, but this...this isn't the same as reading a grade higher than I should. This isn't the same as organizing my parents work functions. This is me, just me, being able to possibly save the country, maybe even the world, of this disease. But what if it doesn't even work? Would I be stupid to not try in fear that it won't work and be branded as a failure? What are you staring at?"   
"Oh," Scott coughed, turning his head away from Courtney as it lit up like a Christmas tree. "I was just...you know..." He mumbled incoherently. "I just...I like your eyes...both of them...on your face."  
Courtney was taken a back by his sudden compliment and ducked her own head. "You're only saying that because I'm 'the cure'," she replied, using air quotations to boost her dramatics.   
Scott shook his head, "I'm not infected." He shrugged his shoulders as if it was obvious. Courtney looked at him curiously. There weren't a lot of people in this base that were genuinely nice and trustworthy, and she wasn't sure if Scott was one of them or just someone Blainely had sent after her to make sure her precious cure wasn't going to runaway.   
"You're....right," she said, slowly turning her head to face the floor. The clockwork of thoughts that moved around her head were going extra fast now, thinking up new theories. "I should talk to someone who is."  
"Wait, that's not what-" But before Scott could convince Courtney she was crazy, she was gone. She was sprinting towards back to the lab where she had left everyone not that long before. Now there was only Alejandro and Blainely, and the geeky guys in the corner that had not moved at all.   
She was panting again, which alerted Alejandro and Blainely to her arrival. They looked at her curiously, but Courtney didn't care for either of them in that moment.   
"I need to talk to Mike," she told them. She nodded towards the metal door. "Let me in there." Alejandro looked panicked by the idea, but Courtney just rolled her eyes at him. "I'm hardly going to get infected."  
Blainely looked to her colleague for a moment before reluctantly nodding her head. Alejandro got to his feet and walked to the far end of the room, Courtney following him at a leisurely pace, and pushing some buttons into the keypad. The bolted door unlocked and swung open two inches. Courtney pulled the door open and Alejandro locked it behind her. She could easily knock on the wide glass window when she was ready to come out.   
Mike was stretched out on his side in the bed closest to the door, his back facing Courtney. She could hear his even breathing and figured he was taking a nap. There didn't seem to be much for him to do in this room other than sleep all day and text Zoey. It smelt oddly like blood, but Courtney had been around zombies long enough to know that Mike caused that smell when he turned. As she got closer to the bed she noticed that the curtains had massive rips in them and the walls were covered in nail scratches. She wondered what it must be like, knowing that you could turn into a monster like that at any moment.   
Courtney took a seat on the edge of the second bed, peering down at Mike's face. He was definitely asleep, his eyelids fluttering as he dreamed away the pain. He still looked like himself in his sleep; innocent. He wasn't a monster in his 'human form', but Courtney knew all too well how easily that could change.   
"Mike," she called softly. "Mike, wake up." She moved her hand to shake him gently, but before she could touch him his eye shot open, a groggy grey in color. Courtney pulled her arm back, prepared to scream, but after he'd blinked a few times Mike's eyes returned to their usual mellow brown color. "It's just me."  
Mike blinked a few more times, sitting up and rubbing his eyes. He grabbed his phone to check the time before tapping out a quick message to Zoey, apologizing for falling asleep on her.   
"So," Mike yawned, scratching the back of his head. "They told you about the cure, huh?" Courtney peered at him curiously and he shrugged. "The window isn't sound proof, you know."  
"Oh..." Courtney mumbled. Mike gave Courtney a gap-toothed grin. "I just wanted to come see how you felt about the whole cure idea."  
Pondering over what to say, Mike scrunched up his face in concentration. Courtney wasn't sure what he was thinking, but she was sure it was some way of asking for the cure without having to beg for it. There was no way he enjoyed playing the part of both Jekyll and Hyde, as Courtney called it, everyday, being cooped up inside the quarantine bay at all times.   
"It's up to you, I guess," Mike finally told her. "It's your body, after all. But would I like to be normal again? Sure. Would I like to be able to hang out with my girlfriend all day everyday? Sure. But, at the same time, how much different would my life really be? I'd still be stuck here in the base." He shrugged again. "I'm not forcing anything on you, like Blainely and Al are."  
"But what about-"  
"But nothing," Mike interrupted. "You asked for my thoughts, and that's it. I don't want you worrying about me." But it wasn't Mike that she was worrying about, it was herself. Would she be able to live with the guilt if she left Mike in this state?  
By the time she had finished with Mike, Courtney was sure of what she wanted to do. Blainely let her exit the room and she searched the lab for Alejandro, but he had left at some point, which did upset her a little. Courtney sighed, getting comfortable in a chair; this was going to be a long day. 

 

After Courtney had run off, Zoey had dragged Gwen away. She had thought they were going after her, but they had ended up in a lounge room. Gwen figured it was hard for Zoey to leave Mike, but she did it was such bravery that Gwen didn't complain, even though her head was yelling at her to go find Courtney.   
"She'll be fine," Zoey assured her more than once, but Gwen couldn't help but worry. Courtney was her friend, her only real friend, and she hated seeing anything hurt or upset her. This whole cure nonsense was bullshit to Gwen, who didn't believe in it one bit. Sure, the picture was of Courtney and the research looked official, Gwen wasn't denying the authenticity of the project, but to think that it would actually work was ludicrous.   
It was a very long hour of pacing back and fore; of listening to Zoey tapping away on her phone; of not knowing if Courtney was safe or scared or in any kind of danger.   
"She's with Mike," Zoey said, reading a message off the screen.   
"What?"  
"'Sorry I fell asleep. Courtney's here, will talk later.'" Before Zoey could stop her, Gwen had already left the room and was speed walking towards the lab again.   
She rounded a corner, preparing a speech in her head of what she was going to say when she came face-to-face with Courtney, but instead she came face-to-face with Alejandro and Heather. He had her pushed up against the wall, her hands in his hair and one leg hitched around his waist. His hand was travelling dangerously high up her leg, and their lips looked they were molded into one. Gwen stared at them for a moment before clearing her throat. They soon jumped apart.   
While Alejandro looked slightly embarrassed about getting caught, Heather had her winning smirk plastered across her face. Luckily for him, a message came through on Alejandro's walkie-talkie and he sped off, leaving Heather to clean up the mess. She pulled out a tube of lipstick and applied a generous coat to her lips without using a mirror.   
"Mind explaining why your boyfriend keep flirting with my gir-friend, with my friend?" Gwen scolded herself mentally for getting caught up in the question.   
"Oh, he's not my boyfriend," Heather told her, turning away and heading towards the lab. Gwen followed quickly behind. "He can flirt with whoever he wants, I don't care." But there something about the impediment in her voice that suggested otherwise.   
They continued to walk to the lab, Gwen staring at the back of Heather's head, wondering what her problem was. When they arrived they found Courtney sat in a desk chair, using her foot to push herself a few inches to the right and then a few inches to the left, her eyes fixated on a spot on the floor in front of her.   
Gwen rushed to her side, sitting in the chair next to her. Courtney looked up at her friend, sorrow in her eyes. Whatever was on her mind was hurting her badly.   
"I'm going to do it," the brunette whispered softly. "I'm going to give them the cure."  
"No, Court, you don't have to do this," Gwen assured her, reaching out and grabbing her hand. Courtney squeezed back, a small smile shining through the sadness.   
"I want to do it," she said.   
"You don't have to do this for Mike-"  
"It's not for Mike," Courtney continued. "I want to do this for myself, okay? How would you feel if it was me who was infected and you had the only known cure, would you use it?" Gwen couldn't say she wouldn't.   
They stared at each other for a while, and Gwen could still see the sadness that plagued her friend. That wasn't the full story, but Gwen didn't know if she should push. Courtney still didn't open up with explanations, even though their friendship has grown a lot closer.   
Courtney nervously searched the room, making sure everyone else was not listening in. She dropped her head and scooted closer to Gwen. "Okay, I-I'll tell you the truth." Gwen frowned, but moved closer to Courtney as well. "It was back in March, a few weeks after my birthday, and I'd been at school all day when the news of the infection hitting our area was heard. I-I rushed home, but couldn't find my parents anywhere...then my father came in looking groggy and tired, and-and...and he turned. Right there before my very eyes. I watched him transform from my father into a zombie and-and-and..." Courtney wiped the tears from her eyes and Gwen wrapped her arm around Courtney's back; she knew this was going to be a hard conversation for her, but she seemed adamant to finish the story. "I was scared, I didn't really know what was going on so I hid in the attic all night long, and when the sun came up the next day I went downstairs. There was my father, sitting in the lounge in his chair, feet on the ottoman, reading the current events section of the newspaper. He looked up at me and smiles as if nothing was wrong. He looked like himself again and I wondered if I had just been having a bad nightmare...But then it happened again. I was halfway through my breakfast when he turned back into a zombie and tried to attack me. Luckily he was slow, giving me time to escape. By that time most of my town had been evacuated and I was left to rummage around other peoples houses. After another attack, I gathered a backpack and stuffed some things into it, and headed to the school where I knew I would be out of reach enough to be safe."  
Gwen pulled Courtney close and let the Hispanic girl cry into her shoulder. Gwen wasn't sure of what else to do but hug her. She had never been very good at comforting others, she'd never really had much practice. The only thing she remembered was her mother drinking a bottle of wine every night after her father left because Gwen had been too young to do anything herself, but she didn't know how much comfort that left a person with.   
Courtney pulled back first, walking over to the water container and pouring herself a glass. Gwen watched as Alejandro sauntered into the room, instantly noticing her.   
"You're shaking, mi amor," he said gently, pulling her into a hug. Gwen hated to see it, but Courtney seemed content with a hug from him. She watched as his eyes searched the room, and for a moment she thought they were going to land on her, but they looked straight down to the other side where Heather was sat, leaning back in her desk chair, eyes narrowed on the the hugging pair. Alejandro sent her a wink and Gwen thought she was going to vomit. "Blainely told me that you were going to go ahead with the cure," the Latino told Courtney as they broke apart. She nodded her head. "I promise you we only need a small amount of blood, that's all. I'll go get the nurse." Courtney nodded again, but walked away from him before he could say anything else. She sat down next to Gwen, searching for her friends hand to hold. Gwen held her tightly, scared for her well-being, even though Courtney wanted to do this.   
"Be careful with him," the older girl whispered.   
"Don't start this again," Courtney argued.   
"No, I mean it-"  
"I don't care!" Courtney snapped, getting a few other peoples attention. Before Gwen could tell them all to mind their own business, Alejandro returned with the nurse, the one that had stuck Gwen in the arm with a needle without her consent.   
"We'll finish this conversation later," Gwen promised, getting up from her seat to allow the nurse to sit. She had a whole medical kit with her which she placed on the desk behind the two chairs.   
"This won't hurt very much, only a small pinch," the nurse assured Courtney, who was starting to panic slightly. Courtney had always been the picture of health, so injections and drawing blood had never been part of her life. The nurse pulled some disinfectant and a washcloth out of her medical kit and swiped Courtney's right forearm, over her birthmark. Courtney couldn't look when the nurse pulled out the needle. The pointed end was not very long, but the syringe end was. The nurse stuck it in without a second thought. For a second, Gwen was sure Courtney's blood would turn out to be some obscure color like purple, but when the syringe was full it showed that Courtney's blood looked just like anyone else's.  
Once it was over, Blainely took the syringe and placed it in a Ziploc bag, exiting the room with it. Alejandro explained that she was going to be escorted back to the science lab forty miles away to work on taking the cure from Courtney's blood cells.   
Courtney ignored everyone around her, too busy holding the cotton ball to her arm to stop the bleeding. It didn't take long and as soon as the nurse had run a few basic tests on her, making sure she didn't feel dizzy or anything, Gwen grabbed her by her good arm and hauled her out of the room. She was not going to let this Alejandro thing drop.   
"What is your problem?" Courtney demanded once they had found an empty hallway.   
"My problem is that you're not fucking listening!" Gwen yelled, not caring how loud her voice got. "I am telling you right now that Alejandro wants one thing and one thing only- the cure! He does not give two fucks about you, Courtney-"  
"And you do?!"  
"OF COURSE I DO!" Gwen slammed her palm against the wall next to Courtney's head. "Do you even listen to yourself? I have stuck by you for the past, what, twelve days? Making sure that you do not come under any harm because I care about you, Courtney. I care about you and I don't want to see you get hurt. And yes, Alejandro is going to hurt you because you're head over heels in puppy love and he's fucking Heather!"  
Courtney swallowed the bile that rose up in her throat. "...You're lying," she countered, but she wasn't entirely sure she believed herself when she said it.   
"I am not lying," Gwen whispered, pushing herself off the wall. "But if you really don't believe me, we can ask Zoey."

 

They found the red haired girl exactly where Gwen had left her. She was spread out on the beaten sofa, cell phone in hand, texting Mike about God knows what. Gwen had learnt that the two of them never seemed to run out of things to talk about. And when they got her talking to them, Courtney realized just how right Gwen had been.   
"They're not exclusively dating or anything, I mean, Al fucks pretty much anything with legs in this place," she explained. "But that doesn't stop him from ending up in Heather's bed at the end of the night, every night. He has solid feelings for her, and she has some for him too, but she's less open about them. But because she won't admit anything, he tries to make her jealous, hence the constant flirting. Sorry, Court."  
Courtney felt as if her chest was collapsing in on itself. She couldn't breathe and her heart was trying to beat its way right out of its cage. Gwen tried to wrap her arm around Courtney's shoulders, but she was batted away. Courtney didn't want to be around anyone. She felt so stupid for having believed that Alejandro had genuine feelings for her, of course he was just using her for the cure, and to make Heather feel jealous? That just made it even worse.   
She retreated up to her assigned bedroom at turtle pace, but once she got there she collapsed head first onto her pillow. She wanted to cry but couldn't bring herself to do it. She felt so betrayed, so heartbroken, but the tears just wouldn't fall. She blamed herself. Gwen was right, it was puppy love, a stupid childish infatuation. Courtney felt so immature now, looking back on everything she had over the last twenty-four hours. Aimless giggling, the pointless blushing, acting like nothing more than a school girl when he had a real woman at his beck and call.  
Gwen sat down in the chair beside the hospital bed, awkwardly stroking Courtney's hair. She didn't really know how to make it better, but she had an idea.  
"Do you trust me?" Gwen asked. Courtney hesitated before nodding into her pillow. No matter what words spilled form her mouth, she still trusted Gwen more than anyone else. "Then I want you to know that I have a plan. We're getting out of here tonight, no going back, okay?"


	8. Where It Gets Heated

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A little wine goes a long way.

They waited until night had fallen and most people had retreated to their beds. Courtney could hear the soft snores of her three roommates before she slipped out of her bed and down the hallway. Gwen was only in the room next door and she crept in quietly. She found her friend watching the guards from the window.  
"Gwen," she called out as quietly as she could, but her voice was pretty loud.  
"Escape quieter," Zoey mumbled, turning over and stuffing her pillow over her head. Courtney smiled and Gwen led the two of them from the room. She had informed Zoey of their plan and she had given her her cell phone number for emergencies. Gwen prayed there wouldn't be any emergencies, but in the world they were living, anything could happen to them.   
Together, they crept down the stairway and past the cafeteria. In the day and a half they had been at the survivor base they had learned their way around quite well. It was easy to get to ambulance bay without any fuss because they knew what areas of the hospital to avoid.   
They came face-to-face with a scrawny boy who started nervously shaking when he saw the two girls approach him, as if he still believed girls had cooties. It definitely was not the same person that had met them when they had arrived.   
Gwen gave him a smirk, "Hey there." She placed both her hands on his desk. "We need our backpacks and weapons, as well as a set of keys to one of the jeeps."  
"I-I'm not s-supposed to g-give those out," the boy replied, stumbling over his words from nerves. "Alejandro said-"  
"Alejandro sent us," Courtney said, leaning over the desk, biting her bottom lip in her best sexy smile. It wasn't well rehearsed, but the boy didn't see to know the difference.   
"Alejandro didn't say-"  
"Listen, you can call him up and ask if you want," Gwen reasoned, motioning towards the walkie-talkie. "But I'm telling you right now that he is down in the lab with Mike, something serious is going on and I doubt he'd want to be disturbed right now. He's sending us out to scope out the city for him, is that a problem?"  
"I-I...I uh...I guess I-I don't want to disturb him." The boy got to his shaky feet and unlocked the door behind him, asking for their names. Courtney and Gwen grinned at each other. The boy returned with their backpacks which they snatched right up. There was an extra set of bullets with Gwen's gun now and Courtney's baseball bat had been polished over. She inspected it carefully before Gwen kicked her foot and motioned for them to leave. Courtney grabbed the keys from the boy with another smile of thanks as they headed outside.  
It was cold outside and they didn't have jackets with them. They stuck close to the building perimeter, skating their way along the shadows to make sure the guards didn't spot them. They made their way towards the car garage which was in the parking structure next to the hospital. Zoey had given them all the instructions they needed and had said if it weren't for Mike then she would have joined them, though Zoey didn't seem like much of a rule breaker to them.  
There weren't any guards at the parking structure since there wasn't really anyone around to steal a car. Courtney clicked the alarm button on the keys and a black land rover beeped on the far end of the structure. The two girls half ran towards their car and climbed in excitedly. Courtney put the car into reverse and backed out of the spot with ease, having learnt a lot of driving tips since the first time Gwen had gotten in the car with her. She pulled out of the parking structure and sped off down the dirt road that hopefully would lead them to another town.  
Gwen had a Cheshire cat grin plastered on her face, but Courtney was a lot more solemn. Gwen was excited to be back on the road, Courtney was still heartbroken. The older girl wondered if she should have offered to take the wheel in case Courtney's crashed out of anger, but driving seemed to sooth Courtney in a way that Gwen's awkward comforting had not.  
They drove for an hour before they decided to stop. There was definitely no one following them now. Courtney pulled into the driveway of a larger house than what they were used to. They both scrambled out and upon checking her watch, Gwen discovered it was nearing three AM already. They were both exhausted, but had enough adrenaline to keep them awake until next Tuesday- whenever next Tuesday was.   
Courtney dropped their bags into the spacious lounge room, onto the floor by one of the three purple plush couches. She collapsed onto one with a content smile, that was before she was easily reminded of her heartbreak. Courtney curled up into a ball, moaning to herself.   
Gwen did a quick sweep through of the downstairs, locking everything she could and shutting all the drapes. She searched the kitchen for food and found it mostly stocked. In the top shelf of the refrigerator she found a chilled bottle of red wine. Pulling it out she found it unopened. Gwen bit her lip, staring at the open doorway that led into the lounge room where Courtney was undoubtedly still having a hard time. Quietly, Gwen raided the cupboards until she found two wine glasses. She walked into the next room and set them down on the coffee table, unfastening the wine lid. She nudged Courtney with her elbow as she poured her a generous glass full.   
"Here, drink this," she encouraged.   
Courtney sat up groggily. "I'm not a big drinker," she said, rubbing her tired eyes.   
"It'll make you feel better," Gwen replied, taking a sip of her own.   
Even though neither were very keen drinkers, and both were underage, the bottle didn't last very long. They managed two and a half large glass fulls each before it was finished and they were slurring their words.   
"But just," Courtney hiccuped, "why can't I find a decent guy?" She asked, motioning around the room with her arms. "Why can't I have a nice boyfriend? Why do they all got to be douche bags?" She licked the inside of her glass before setting it down on the table.   
"You'll find someone," Gwen told her, a pout on her lips. "You're beautiful and pretty," she tugged on Courtney's hair, "anyone would be a fool to not want you."   
"Thanks, Gwen," Courtney sniffled, resting her head on Gwen's shoulder. Gwen hugged her tightly until Courtney pulled back. "Time for bed," she yawned, trying to stand. She instantly fell back down, giggling. Gwen joined in for a second before falling quiet again. Courtney turned her head to the side, wondering why she had stopped, but realized they were now a lot closer together. Gwen's eyes were moving between Courtney's and lower down her face, and the younger girl was sure she could see the thoughts turning in Gwen's head. Before she could ask what she was thinking, Gwen leaned forward and pressed her lips to Courtney's. Courtney didn't pull away, in fact she leaned in closer. It was obviously not her first kiss, but it was her first kiss in over a year and her first kiss with another girl. Gwen, on the other hand, had more experience.   
Gwen laid one hand on Courtney's waist and both of Courtney's hands were in Gwen's hair, pulling her head closer. Their mouths opened and the kiss deepened. Gwen slid her tongue across Courtney's lips, earning a small moan from the younger girl. She slid it into her mouth without caution and Courtney sucked and teased on it. They moved so that they were lying down, Courtney squashed between Gwen and the sofa- not that she was complaining.

 

The next morning both girls woke with a headache. They were wrapped up in each others arms on the sofa, where they had drifted to sleep halfway through their make-out session.   
Courtney was the first to roll away in search for some Tylenol while Gwen continued to lie on her back, staring at the ceiling. The white paint was starting to go moldy and she started making patterns in her mind.   
It wasn't exactly awkward between them that day, but they did spend a lot more time not talking to each other than what they usually did. They would always find something to talk about, to occupy their day as they traveled, but today was more silent for the longest time. It didn't help that they hadn't woke up until mid-afternoon, and their hangovers weren't exactly great for driving. They gave a silent agreement that maybe they should spend another night in this house before leaving and by the time evening had come in and the sun was starting to set outside, Gwen was sick and tired of all the empty noises.   
"It was really...brave of you," she said. "You know, yesterday, talking about your dad like that." Courtney nodded her head. They were sat on separate sofas across from each other. The brunette couldn't bring herself to look Gwen in the eye. "I um...I don't have a dad." She had never told anyone that before, though her old friends had known due to the lack of manly presence in her house. The only man in her life had been her brother, and the odd boyfriend or two. But she never really cared about the boyfriends, only her family.   
"He left when I was three," Gwen continued. "I...I don't really know why. I guess after L-Liam was born he just didn't want to stick around anymore." She took a deep breath, trying to fight the memories as she told the stories. "My mom was never the same after that." She stopped, leaning her head back against the back of the sofa. Her neck cried in pain from the awkward position she had spent last night in, but she didn't care. The pain in her neck was nothing compared to the pain in the rest of her body.   
Courtney bit her lip. Pushing aside the fact that she didn't want to face Gwen in a proper conversation, she got to her feet and made her way across the room. Tucking her legs beneath her, Courtney settled beside her friend on the other sofa. She sighed deeply, getting ready to tell a different story.  
"I don't know where my mom is," she admitted. "I don't know if she's infected or dead or...I don't know."   
"My mom's dead." It was quiet, but Courtney heard the words that followed. "I killed her..."  
Courtney started to shake, turning to look Gwen in the eyes for the first time all day, but before she could say anything, there was a loud slam against the door followed by a dead groan. The brunette jumped to her feet and ran to the window. She peeked through the curtains and screamed. The face staring back at her was not her reflection at all. It was that of an infected with sunken eyes and peeling, grey skin.   
The front door splintered and Gwen dived for her handgun that was resting on the coffee table.   
"Grab the bags!" She yelled at Courtney, running into the kitchen. She checked through the kitchen window to find only a few zombies hanging around in the back yard. The Hispanic teen came sliding into the room, tossing Gwen her backpack while swinging her own over her shoulders. "We'll have to run for it." Courtney furrowed her brows. This was not what she wanted to hear. Running meant attracting attention and they would no doubt follow them no matter where they went. There wasn't enough time to hot wire a car and their stolen jeep was parked out front where the majority were accumulating.   
Gwen slid open the door just a crack, and luckily it didn't squeak. Her gun was poised in one hand while she used the other to hold the door open for Courtney. The brunette had her baseball bat held high, ready to swing. They shuffled down the garden where Gwen had seen a kink in the fence.  
It didn't, however, go smoothly. They were halfway down the garden when one of the zombies stepped out from a shadow. Gwen recoiled in shock as it's mouth opened, ready to take a bite from her. Courtney swung her bat, hitting the zombie square in the jaw as Gwen jumped away in shock. Blood splattered from the infected's mouth and Courtney cringed in horror before grabbing Gwen's hand and continuing to run down the garden. The commotion had got the attention of several other infected and they were now being attacked from all corners. Gwen shot her gun as best she could, but it was difficult to keep aim in the dark. Courtney swung her baseball bat mostly, hitting zombies in the head, letting them crumple to the floor. It may not have been enough to kill them, but it was enough to leave them hurt, dazed and confused- if the people under the infection even felt those things anymore.   
They made it through the fence and through a few more gardens before daring to take an ally way through to the main street. It turned out to not be the best decision on Gwen's behalf. They were greeted by an angry mob of infected, all wanting just one thing; their next meal.   
The pair ran right, away from the majority. Gwen had already used up all of her bullets and was now eating into her second set. She had wanted to save them, but this was not the time for saving, this was the time for using every resource she had.   
The continued to run, but the zombies were too slow to catch up immediately. But they weren't in shape enough to run for very long. When they both stopped, doubling over with cramps in their sides. Gwen took the opportunity to climb up onto the closest car she could find.   
"Gwen..." Courtney warned. She could see the mob starting to zone in and as she searched for an exit, Courtney found there not to be one. No matter where she looked there were at least a few zombies appearing from the darkness. "Get down! We have to go right now!" But Gwen didn't budge. "What are you even doing?" Courtney stressed. She swung her head around again, raising her bat in case anything came too close.   
"I'm looking for an escape," Gwen hissed back. She squinted her eyes, but there was no hope. Every direction she turned to was getting more and more crowded. She turned to Courtney and helped her climb onto the car too. "Well, we're screwed."  
Courtney glared at her, almost blaming Gwen for stopping. The older girl bit her lip, swallowing words that she knew she shouldn't say. But she said them anyway.   
"If this is the end-"  
"No," Courtney cut her off, shaking her head back and fore. "You're not doing this."  
"Shh." Gwen continued, "I just-I want you to know that...that you've been a really good friend to me, the best friend a girl could ever ask for during a zombie apocalypse." Tears stained Courtney's eyes and she tried her hardest to blink them away. "A-And..And I don't know...I lime you, I guess. I like really like you and-" She was cut off my Courtney once again, but this time it was her pressing a fleeting kiss to her lips that did it.   
"Let's kick some zombie ass."


	9. When It Helps To Let Your Guard Down

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Not everyone out there is bad, as Gwen and Courtney soon discover.

They turned back to back, a look of disapproval crossing both of their faces. Gwen raised her gun first, pointing it into the crowd. She fired a few shots, but it only made the moans and groans of the infected louder, almost as if they were excited that their meal was putting up a fight.   
Courtney raised her bat, ready to jump down onto the trunk of the car and make some heads roll, but she didn't get the chance.  
A piercing whistle cut through the air, bouncing off the metal car exterior and forcing a few zombies backwards. The ones that still had half a brain turned towards the sound, along with Courtney and Gwen.   
A hundred feet away, on the roof of another car, stood a young teenage boy. He was scrawny and tired-looking, almost as if he hadn't eaten in six years. His dark colored hair was limp around his face and his clothes were torn with blood seeping through. He looked like he could collapse at any second, but he was waving his arms frantically in the air.   
"OVER HERE!" He called out, but Gwen guessed it wasn't for her and Courtney to see. Oh no, it was for the zombies to see. He was creating a distraction, a much needed distraction that actually seemed to work.   
Courtney grabbed Gwen's hand as some of the zombies ran in his direction. The boy didn't move, he stayed rooted to his spot. He waited for more of the zombies to close in on him to throw some sort of smoke bomb into the crowd. By the time the smoke had evaporated, the boy was gone, but so were Courtney and Gwen. While Gwen had stood staring, Courtney had pulled her away almost completely unnoticed. They continued to run down the main street until Courtney's arm was yanked sideways down an even darker side street.   
"Follow me," whispered a voice, which Courtney could only place as belonging to the young boy. She some how trusted him and the three ran away from the noise and commotion of the zombies until the young boy pulled up short, quickly unlocking a front door to a house and letting Gwen and Courtney take shelter inside.   
The three teenagers stopped to catch their breath and Courtney was about to thank the stranger for saving them, but Gwen beat her to talking.   
"Why does it smell like death in here?"  
"Probably because I haven't taken the dead body out of the living room yet."  
He shrugged like it was nothing, but Gwen was starting to doubt Courtney's trust in strangers all over again. This boy didn't look as harmful as Alejandro had upon sight, but if he was harboring a dead body in his living room then maybe he was not the sort of person they should be associating with.   
The boy walked off down the long hallway and opened the door at the very end; Gwen could only pray it wasn't the living room. Courtney followed him before the older girl pushed her behind, not wanting to endanger her anymore. Courtney rolled her eyes but held her tongue.   
Gwen's gun was close to her side as she wormed her way through the doorway and found the teenage boy rummaging through a cupboard in the back, a flashlight reflecting off objects that the girls couldn't see. Strange shaped objects lined the wall around the cupboard and when Courtney squinted she found that they in fact covered every wall, but without a light it was hard to see what they were.   
"Here," he spoke up, tossing something towards the girls. Gwen jumped back in case it hit her while Courtney managed to catch it one handed. It was a small plastic box that they had both seen before. It was the same that had come with Gwen's gun when she got it back from the survivors; bullets. "I uh...I figured you'd need some more."  
"Thanks..." Gwen replied.   
"Cody," the boy said eagerly, almost as if he didn't want her to forget his name any time soon.   
"Thanks, Cody," Gwen said and Courtney could see his boyish grin through the darkness.   
"You-You can stay here," he offered quietly. "For as long as you need to, I guess."  
"We'll be gone by morning." Cody looked almost disappointed. Courtney was forced to remember the loneliness that she had felt when she had been hiding out at the school. It drove you crazy to not have anyone to talk to. Gwen didn't seem to understand, but Courtney knew all too well what it was like to be in Cody's shoes. She had craved company before Gwen had showed and would be lying if she said she hadn't been upset when she had left the next morning. 

 

Cody instructed the pair of them to get some sleep. He claimed to never sleep very well during the night, and the bags under his eyes proved it. Gwen knew what it was like to not want to sleep anymore, out of fear and guilt, but she didn't try to bond over that fact with Cody, instead she took the master bedroom.   
Courtney and Gwen laid side-by-side in the king size bed, listening to the soft breathing that they both emitted. They weren't overly excited to fall asleep after the attack, and Gwen was still a little weary of Cody. Courtney was too wrapped up thinking about Gwen and what she had said. And the fact that Courtney had actually had the courage to kiss her.   
"We should talk," the younger girl said at last. Gwen tried to swallow her pride, but it wouldn't go down. She rolled away, her back to Courtney, muttering something about being too tired. "I-It's okay, you know," Courtney continued, pressing the matter harder. "I'm not mad or anything. I just...I don't know...I don't know if I feel the same." Gwen was silent. Courtney could tell she wasn't sleep by her heavy breathing, obviously embarrassed by what she had said during what they had both thought to be their final moments. "I like kissing you, though." She turned away too, trying to force herself to drift off, but it isn't until Gwen distances herself from her own side of the bed and wraps one arm around Courtney's waist does she finally manage to fall asleep.   
The sun rose, but the girls stayed in bed way past that. It was the most undisturbed sleep they had ever shared. No sun to peek through the curtains because they were on the west side of the house. No need to panic about a zombie attack because Cody was downstairs guarding them. Though, subconsciously, they both knew it was the cuddling that did it. The feeling of being safe and protected by someone else. Though both would argue they didn't need protecting, they would both do their best to protect each other from everything thrown their way.   
Gwen was the first to awake, which was unusual. Gwen was too much of a heavy sleeper to wake up first, something Courtney had learnt fast, but she still tip toed around the bedroom just in case it disturbed her. Gwen was doing the same now, tip toeing around the house as if she could disturb her friend from another room.   
She made her way downstairs, avoiding the second from bottom step that had given out a loud creak when she had stepped on it last night. In that moment it had terrified her because she was sure the zombies had super sensitive hearing and were going to come crashing into the house at any moment. Cody assured her that they were safe at his house.   
He had explained that he and his father had lived here alone his whole life, right up until a month into the zombie attack. His father had been bitten on a grocery store run for supplies. He'd turned in the living room and Cody had shot his own father in the head with a rifle. Courtney looked shocked, as if she was about to break down crying at the very thought of it, but Gwen sympathized with him. She understood how he felt more than anyone else in that aspect of his life.   
He knocked twice on the wooden door of the living room, letting them know that his fathers rotting corpse was still lying on the floor five months later. Cody informed them that he could always be found in the kitchen or the office- the room he had gotten the bullets from. Gwen now had them stashed away in the bedroom with her pistol.   
A quick sweep of the kitchen proved that he wasn't in there, which led Gwen back down the long corridor. She lightly knocked her knuckles against the wood. She heard Cody's chair scrape against the floor a few moments later and his feet scampering across the floorboards towards her. He opened the door ajar, double checking who it was before opening it wide enough to let her in, his boyish grin back on his face.   
"How'd you sleep?" He asked eagerly, staring at Gwen with round, blue eyes. She wanted to answer, but was too starstruck with what she was seeing. Courtney had told her about the shapes last night when Cody wasn't listening, but now in broad daylight she could see them.   
Guns.  
Every square inch of wall space was covered by a gun of some sorts. Gwen was still no expert, but now she understood why Cody had the spare bullets on hand. The large grey cabinet was pushed against one wall, but she could still see guns poking out from behind it.   
"Oh, yeah..." Cody said sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck nervously. "M-My dad collected firearms. He had a licence, but..." He shrugged one shoulder. His eyes wouldn't meet Gwen's for a moment, but when they did he started spewing all about Gwen's own pistol. She wasn't interested in it, but he obviously was, so for the sake of his sanity Gwen pretended to listen until Courtney joined them, asking if she could make breakfast. Cody argued that he could do it, but she was adamant that she made him a decent meal before sending him off for a nap. Cody truly was exhausted, but he had grown accustomed to not three hours sleep a week.   
The silence between Courtney and Gwen was maddening. Courtney thought she was going to lose her mind if Gwen didn't say something to her soon. They were both calmly sipping down orange juice in the breakfast nook, not meeting each others eyes. At that point Courtney would have settled for what the plans for the day were, though there seemed to be none.   
They couldn't exactly up and leave Cody while he was asleep after he had saved their lives- despite what Gwen wanted to do. If she had said so much to Courtney, though, she knew she would have received a earful of how 'wrong' that was.   
The pair wandered around each other, careful not to disturb the other. Things were sufficiently awkward, to say the least. Cody didn't notice anything wrong when he woke from his midday sleep and made them all peanut butter sandwiches. The tension was invisible to the boy that just kept rambling on and on about whatever words sprang from his tongue, not caring about the direction of the conversation. Courtney feigned interest, Gwen couldn't have cared less. Her thoughts were tracing patterns in her mind and they usually overrode whatever this the hyperactive teenage boy had to say.   
She couldn't get Courtney's words from her head, letting them replay themselves over and over again. She couldn't really have meant it, Gwen decided. She felt bad about not reciprocating Gwen's feelings and that was all; though Gwen wasn't even sure of her feelings. In the moment where she believed they were both going to die, words blurted from her mouth so fast that she didn't have time to even think them up before she was already saying them. Now Gwen was more confused than ever. Sure, she had, had feelings for girls before, she had dealt with that part of her life. But this was Courtney. Courtney was not just another girl crush, she was the one person in the world that she could rely on. Feelings of the romantic kind would easily jeopardize that.  
"So...what you going to do?" Cody asked. Gwen was sat in his office at his desk and he was leaning on the back of the chair. Courtney had wandered off upstairs with a headache, leaving the two of them to talk.   
Gwen blinked her eyes up at him, clearly confused. She hadn't been paying him much attention. Cody raised an eyebrow, "What are you going to do about your plan?"   
"Oh," she replied, turning back to the desk. She had informed him of the plan to go to Newfoundland island, claiming him to be some sort of trustworthy. She could feel her walls diminishing, suddenly not caring too much about who she found suitable to tell of her plan. "I guess we'll head out tomorrow."  
Cody nodded his head in agreement, furrowing his brows. "You're so smart," he exclaimed. "I feel that. The infected are always out at night so we should probably hold out until tomorrow."  
"We?"   
"Well, yeah, I'm not going to let you go alone," Cody argued. "You need a big, muscly man to protect you!"  
"That doesn't explain why you're coming." 

 

It was an eventful night. As they packed as many firearms they could get without being too overloaded with belongings to carry, the first attack began. It started with distant groaning, but it grew closer in time until it sounded as if it could have been on the outside of the office wall. Cody had switched all of the lights off by that point. They each had flashlights, but refused to turn them on. It was easier to deal with things in the dark than to get caught by zombies.   
Courtney offered to take first watch because she hadn't log woken up form her headache induced nap. Gwen had locked Cody out of the master bedroom, despite his attempts to tell her that it was for protection, and settled straight into bed. That was until the glass window on the wall to her right smashed and a zombie effectively climbed in.   
Not missing a beat, Gwen grabbed her handgun and fire twice into the infected's forehead. She struggled to unlock the door, her eyes focusing on the hole in the window instead of what she was doing, but eventually swung the door open and ran down the hallway yelling for her two companions.   
There hadn't been much of an argument on whether to let Cody come along or not- it was no secret they needed the weapons. The teenage boy was more than happy to assist them in their trek across Canada. In fact, he was practically jumping for joy when Courtney officially invited him.   
The young girl was already rushing around, grabbing the bags they had acquired and sharing them out between them. Courtney slung her backpack over her shoulders, but it was heavier than she was used to and she struggled to run as fast as before. Cody grabbed the backpack full of handguns, as they collectively decided that shotguns and rifles were too big to carry, and ran towards the back door. Gwen had the third backpack, the one filled with all their necessities. Courtney had tried her best to keep only what they needed, but it was hard for her. As an ex-CIT she knew that everything came in handy at some point, which was why Gwen was struggling just as much as Courtney herself was.   
They all grabbed walkie-talkies from the kitchen table before setting off. Together, they ran down the garden path and helped one another hop over the fence. This was one of the most infected towns Gwen had seen on her travels. It was as if every person in the city had been infected by the disease. There were hoards of zombies, even after the few they had managed to kill of the previous night. Now they were running for their lives, shooting guns that they weren't trained to use, praying for their lives.


	10. Where It Doesn't Stay The Same

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Travelling through the city, hope in their eyes, the trio think they're almost in the clear. Then the Prologue catches up to them.

Things didn't get better as they traveled through Cody's city. It took nine days to reach the outskirts. Courtney was too physically drained to hot wire anymore cars, though she had tried. None of them started. Cody had been pretty useless in that department too, though he had tried (apparently his dad had been a mechanic as a day job and only collected weaponry in his spare time), and Gwen had no clue what to do. They ended up on foot, which was dangerous enough when they were on their own, but a group of three really did draw some unwanted attention. They went through a lot of bullets and managed to create a system where they would split up and find a safe house.  
Courtney had packed a few candles and Gwen had a lighter, which she begrudgingly gave to Cody. The deal was that Cody would find a safe house within a reasonable distance, deem it safe, and light a candle in the window. Courtney and Gwen would also split up and lead the zombies away from Cody and the safe house.  
However, it didn't always end up as good of a plan as it sounded. Courtney still refused to hold a gun and stuck to her baseball bat, but that did mean that she had to be close to the zombies to kill them off.  
She ran down the over crowded street, dodging cars and hoping over discarded items. There was barely any room for her to actually run, but Courtney kept going. The zombies were getting fast and she couldn't risk slowing down.  
She turned down a side street, tripping over a discarded lid from a trash can. The face of her watch scratched against the asphalt as she clambered to her feet unsteadily. She could hear the groaning only a few feet behind her and she set off running, not even noticing when the wristwatch fell away completely.  
Courtney could feel herself slowing down and she still had no idea how to ditch the zombies. She had seen the candle in the window, but was still being chased. She'd planned to circle back around the block of houses, but that seemed impossible with the growing hoard of infected that continued to follow her.  
There was only one thing she felt she could so. Sucking up a brave breath, Courtney came to an unexpected halt at the junction at the end of the street. She swung around, hitting the first zombie across the temple. It fell to the floor with a thud, but she barely had any time to recognize it before the second one tried to attack. She swung and swung and just when she thought she was done, one more lunged for her throat. Courtney swung her bat, but not before it's spiked claws had sunk through the right strap of Courtney's backpack. The bag fell slack against her lower back, but Courtney didn't really care. The tears that fell down her face, the ones from over tiredness and the pain of killing others, got in her way. She hastily rubbed her eyes before moving herself back down the side street, careful not to step on any of the now possibly dead infected.  
She found the safe house easily and, rubbing her eyes one last time, knocked on the door. Three fast, two slow. Gwen answered almost immediately, pulling Courtney inside and embracing her as Cody re-bolted the door behind them.  
"Where have you been?!" Gwen demanded, wrapping her hands around Courtney's upper arms and shaking her before pulling her back in for another hug. "I was so worried about you."  
Before she knew it, Courtney was crying all over again.  
"I-I couldn't shake them," she sniffled. "I-I got them, though." Gwen wrapped her arms tighter around Courtney's shaking body, not wanting to let go. Cody left the room to snuff out the candle upstairs, giving them some privacy. "I'm sorry."  
"It's okay,"Gwen assured her. "I was just so scared that you were hurt. You wouldn't answer your walkie and-"  
"I turned it off, I'm sorry," Courtney replied. "I-I didn't want it going off while I was sneaking around and-and I just..." But she started sobbing all over again. The older girl ushered her over to the couch, where they sat, Courtney still crying softly into Gwen's shoulder. Cody brought them some food from Courtney's torn backpack, but didn't say a word. They ate in silence, too.  
Cody offered to take the first watch of the night and the two girls let him without any arguments.  
Courtney laid down on the left side of the bed and Gwen tucked her in, reaching to give her a peck on the forehead. The brunette moved her head, catching her with her lips instead.  
"Courtney," Gwen warned as she abruptly pulled away, but Courtney had her grip on the back of Gwen's head, forcing her forward again. They would have been lying if either of them said they didn't enjoy kissing each other. It felt as natural as walking and as easy as their shared ex-boyfriend.  
Gwen caved quickly, lowering herself onto the bed beside Courtney. She treated her as fragile, but Courtney didn't want fragile, she wanted rough, she wanted to forget all about Duncan and Scott and Alejandro, she wanted Gwen to help her forget.  
Courtney made room for Gwen, rolling onto her side and hitching her right leg over Gwen's hip. Gwen was almost nervous to touch her, but Courtney grabbed her wrist to place her hand on her thigh. They stayed connected at the lips, Courtney refusing to let go for breath. Slowly but surely, Gwen warmed up to the idea and started running her hand along the full length of Courtney's leg, rocking their pelvis' together. Courtney let out a low moan, letting Gwen bite down on her lip before she slipped in her tongue into Courtney's mouth. Gwen took the lead, rolling Courtney over so that she was on her back, allowing herself to straddle her.  
One by one, pieces of clothes came away, abandoned on the floor. Courtney noted that Gwen's shoulders still held a purple tint from the bruise she had given her from the first time they had met, but it didn't seem to pain her anymore.  
Their hands traced patterns against each others skin, their mouths leaving their mark. They relished each others bodies long into the time they should have been sleeping, because this was something they were happy to lose sleep over. 

 

Courtney woke up alone. And naked. The bed was warm, but Gwen's place was cold. She had gotten up to trade off posts with Cody, letting Courtney sleep through the whole night. After the shaky encounter with the infected, the other two felt that she deserved it.  
The curtains were drawn and only when Courtney looked at her wrist did she recall her watch breaking. She hadn't had it very long, only something she had found while raiding a house, and at Gwen's request she had worn it.  
Gwen.  
It was cheesy and cliched, but a dopey smile spread across Courtney's face as she remembered last night. She rolled out of be and inspected the hickeys on her inner thighs. They were sore, but worth it. Checking her reflection in the mirror she found her shoulders to be fairly scratched up, too, which only went to show how much Gwen needed to file her nails. It was nothing that a few items of clothes couldn't hide, to which Courtney was grateful. With Cody's crush on Gwen, she didn't want him finding out about this. Cody's wrath did not seem like a fun one when she remembered he was a gun expert.  
Courtney got dressed in a plain black t-shirt she found in the bedroom closet and her jean shorts that she had been wearing all week, before heading downstairs. Gwen and Cody were making plans over the island counter.  
"Good morning, sleepy head," Cody grinned as she entered the room. Gwen turned around in her stool to give her a smile as well. "We were just gonna come wake you. I'm making waffles." He turned back to the stove, whistling to himself. Courtney bit back a smile as her attention went fully to Gwen who gave her a wink before turning back to her notepad. She had been scribbling down a plan for the day, but got sidetracked and ended up doodling pictures along the edge instead.  
The three went over the plan that Cody and Gwen had made. They'd let Courtney sleep in until mid-afternoon, so they weren't going to get much walking done today, but that wasn't a bad thing. They were going to spend one more night in this city before they could reach the next one, which meant they would have another run in with infected. The less walking they did, the more energy they would have for running away.  
"Here, you can have this." Cody handed Courtney a tool belt that he had found while rummaging through the house. It was the perfect substitute for her broken backpack.  
Gwen and Courtney sat on the living room floor, swapping all of the food into Gwen's backpack and letting Courtney take the necessities in her tool belt. They both felt safer letting Cody carry the weapons.  
"Why?" Gwen asked, holding up the ribbon Courtney had taken from the house they had been staying in when the survivors showed up. "When are we ever going to need this?" Courtney rolled her eyes. She had done this for nearly every item, including: a single sock, an empty mini deodorant bottle and a bouncy ball. Courtney had taken everything away from Gwen and put them into the divided pockets of the tool belt.  
It wasn't until they were almost ready to leave that Courtney stopped Cody in the upstairs hallway.  
"I want a gun," she told him. He nodded his head and handed her one form his backpack. She looked at him curiously, having been expecting more of a fight, but Cody just shrugged with a closed mouth smile and walked down the stairs to Gwen, who did eye Courtney suspiciously when she saw the gun instead of the baseball bat, but held her tongue too.  
And so they set off a long few hours of walking. 

 

"I think my feet are going to fall off," Cody complained. He was slumping behind the two girls, who just rolled their eyes at his whining. They had been walking for four hours straight, not even breaking for a snack. The sun was starting to set over the horizon and they knew they didn't have long to get to a safe house. The only problem was that all of the houses in this particular neighborhood were not safe to stay in. Windows smashed, doors broken down, an unusual smell of piss everywhere they walked.  
"Not much further now," Gwen told him, though she was starting to feel the burn in her lower legs too. No matter how long she had been travelling for, her feet never got used to all the exercise. The only one who did enjoy the long walks was Courtney, who had always enjoyed most outdoor activities.  
However, Gwen was wrong. They walked well into sunset, as dangerous as it was, but they still hadn't come across a safe place. And by the looks of things, they weren't going to either.  
They rounded another street corner and came up short. Cody stumbled into the back of Gwen as she stopped too suddenly. He was about to start complaining again, but Courtney slapped her hand over his mouth.  
Up ahead, at the end of the street, was a gang of infected, about thirty or so. They were all searching through trash cans, fighting each other for the best prize. Gwen's eyes widened as she tried to calculate a plan, but there wasn't any smart moves she could have made. Slowly, she pushed both Courtney and Cody behind her, walking backwards until they were back around the corner they had come from. She shoved Cody through a broken window, making him hide behind the wall.  
"Stay here for a while, until you're absolutely sure it's safe. Head north, towards the posher side of town," Gwen instructed. Cody nodded his head. He was shaking from fear, but everyone ignored it. They were all scared. "We'll meet you there in one hour. Find a house."  
Gwen turned to Courtney, squeezing their hands together for comfort. The older girl walked away first, rounding the corner. Courtney followed and they both raised their guns, shooting off as many as they could to start with. It caused a riot among the zombies. They started inching towards the two girls, faster than the other infected had before, but still slow enough that Courtney and Gwen could keep shooting as they stepped backwards.  
Before long, Gwen turned around and took off down the street behind them. Courtney quickly followed, leading all of them away from Cody. Gwen would have much preferred it be Cody being chased than Courtney, but she knew that Courtney would cut her down if so much as suggested it. Courtney liked being in on the action.  
"Turn left!" Gwen instructed Courtney as they ran away. She did as she was told, turning down another side street, but quickly noticed Gwen hadn't followed. She had continued to run straight down the same street, leading the majority away from Courtney. However, some did follow Courtney. She didn't slow down and continued to run. The zombies were a lot faster now, gaining speed the more they chased. Courtney threw a glance over her shoulder, and it wasn't too hard in the low light to make out the shapes of the once human beings.  
Not looking where she was going, she tripped. She scraped her hands over the gravel flooring, but it was hard to get a grip to stand up. Courtney had momentarily forgotten about the infected, until she felt the searing pain shooting through her left leg. It was as if someone had pressed a white hot poker to her ankle, branding her for life. She withered in pain, reaching for her fallen gun and shooting the zombie squarely in the forehead. It had broken out of its pack, but the rest weren't far behind. Courtney tried to shoot again, but she was all out of bullets.  
Kicking the zombie away, she got to her feet, continuing to run despite the pain. She willed her legs to be faster than the infected as she rounded a few corners straight after the other, confusing them. She ducked behind a pair of dumpsters down an alley way, silently sending up a prayer that she wasn't found.  
There wasn't any noise for a long time, and Courtney took it as a good sign. She popped open one of the tool belt pockets and pulled out a dirty bandage. It was covered in grime, no doubt having been used several times before, but it was all she had.  
For the time, she inspected the wound. Blood was pouring down her ankle and into her shoe, she could feel it, but she couldn't see it. The moon was blocked by clouds now and there was no other source of light around. Going on a whim, Courtney wrapped her ankle up tightly, hissing in pain as she tied the knot tighter, keeping it in place.  
Finally letting out a breath, Courtney gagged as the stench of blood was much heavier wedged between the dumpsters. Her hands finished wrapping the bandage tightly around her ankle. It wasn't perfect and ten months ago it would have bothered her, now she was just glad she could find a bandage.  
Slowly, she stuck her head around the side of the dumpsters. Looking both ways, there was no one there. Praying it would stay that way and the ones that had been following her had gone, she made a break for it. Two streets she managed to make it before she saw another infected. Swallowing her breath, she ducked down behind an abandoned car. Courtney hear it groaning deeply as it rummaged through the metal trash cans.  
She slid herself under the car, keeping low to ground and evening out her breath as best she could. She reached one hand behind her, pulling her walkie-talkie from her tool belt and turning the volume off. The last thing Courtney needed was any noise distraction, no matter how much trouble she got in with Gwen because of it. The only plan she had was to search her pockets for any sort of item that could be used in this situation, now that her gun was gone. Stale gum? No. Pocket knife? No. Bouncy ball?  
'It could work,' she told herself, thinking it over. She slid further along the floor, glad it was not gravel. Courtney couldn't make out much as the sun had set around an hour ago, but she hoped she could see where her aim was going. Carefully, she reached her arm out from under the car, bouncy ball in hand. Gathering her strength she threw it, quickly retracting her arm before the infected saw her.  
She waited, unable to see the face, but the grunts had ceased. Courtney kept her eyes trained on what she assumed were its legs, watching until it shuffled away, in the exact direction she had tossed the ball.  
'Ha,' she smirked to herself. 'And Gwen said it would be useless.'  
Courtney couldn't wait to brag to Gwen about it, but knew it would have to wait until she found her and Cody a the safe house. Courtney figured she would be the last one there again, but that would just mean more worried cuddles from Gwen.  
The teenager managed to get herself out from under the car without too much fuss. Shaking her head free of all the thoughts of Gwen, Courtney hobbled along the streets, her throbbing ankle starting to act up. She tried to ignore the pain, hoping that if she forgot about it it would go away.  
At the end of the street Courtney could see the low glow of a burning candle in the top floor window of an abandoned house. She moved faster, trying her best to ignore the burning she felt spreading through her lower leg. It was starting to spread and she needed to rest soon.  
She reached the door and looked around for any sign of zombies, but when she drew up short she knocked on the door. Three fast, two slow.  
The door swung open and Courtney was forcefully dragged inside towards the darkness.  
"Shit, Cody!" The brunette hissed, her ankle rolling beneath her weight.  
"What?" The innocent kid asked, and though she couldn't see his face, she knew he was pulling that face. The one that made him look like an angel that could do no wrong. When, in reality, he was their weapon supplier.  
Courtney took a guess of where he was and threw her arm around his shoulders, leaning on him for support. Cody wrapped his arm around her waist and guided her towards the staircase.  
"I was bit."  
"You were bit?" Cody almost dropped Courtney in shock, but she kept a tight hold on him. Feeling her way in the dark, Courtney took a step on the edge of the stairs and started scooting herself upwards one step at a time. Cody's shallow breathing was in front of her, so at least he hadn't run off in fear of getting infected himself. "How did you get bitten? How did you get away? Are you feeling funny? Do you need to lie down? Should I get out of here? Are you going to eat me?" As helpful as Cody was, Courtney learnt he could also be one of the most annoying people she had ever met- and she had met quite a few annoying people over the past few months; infected included.  
Courtney ignored everything he said and felt her way along the hallway to the room with the candle glowing in the window. Cody continue to follow her and she collapsed onto the double bed. She could feel the dust clouds jumping around her.  
Cody sad down on the end of the bed, taking Courtney's bandaged ankle in his lap. The bandage was already starting to turn a dark crimson color. The blood had overtaken the dirt. Carefully, he unwrapped it, inspecting the wound as best he could with such little light.  
"Courtney..." Cody gasped, lifting her leg up by the ball of her foot. "This is disgusting." The outline of the teeth was hard to make out through the blood stains. Courtney was lucky to be alive. "I-I think it's infected," he continued to babble on. "Your leg looks a little green. Maybe we should try to stitch you up-"  
"You're not a doctor. I don't trust you with a needle and thread anywhere near my leg," Courtney quickly snapped at him. Cody stared her down, chewing on the inside of his cheek, something he often did when trying to decide what to do.  
"What happened?" He asked, still inspecting the ankle. There wasn't much he could do but look.  
"After we separated I was chased down the avenue. I tripped over something- I think it was a car part- and it got me. Sunk it's teeth into my ankle before I could shoot it in my head. Used up my last bullet...but I lost my gun anyway, so it doesn't matter." Courtney swallowed hard as another wave of pain hit her. "I managed to hide from the others down a side ally behind some dumpsters and I wrapped myself up there."  
Five knocks on the door. Three fast, two slow. Cody quickly abandoned his post as Courtney's doctor and ran down back down the staircase. Courtney rolled her eyes. Cody would rather play doctor with an uninjured Gwen than with a dying Courtney. She could hear them whispering downstairs, no doubt in her mind that Cody had already told the tale of how she had gotten bitten.  
Courtney peered down at her ankle. The blood was thick and sticky, marking the bed sheets. It was starting to slow down, though, and would most likely stop within the next hour, if she could keep it bandaged up. She tried to bend to get the bandage she had been using previously, which Cody had dropped on the floor in his quick escape, but the pain that shot through her leg was too much. Even in the faint light that she had, it was obvious that her the veins in her leg had already started to pop out, turning sickly green in color. It was the first sign that she was turning. Courtney hit her head on the pillow, willing herself not to cry anymore when another teenage girl burst into the room.  
Gwen's skin was luminous even against the background of the dark house, like she had never seen sunlight. The rest of her was hard to make out until she had jumped onto the bed beside Courtney. Her eyes were full of worry as they swept over Courtney's body. So far it was only the one leg, but it would spread, there was no doubt about it. Gwen laid a shaking hand on Courtney's forehead and Courtney couldn't hold back the tears anymore. She started to sob.  
"Just do it," Courtney sniveled. "Just shoot me already and be done with it." Gwen shook her head and Courtney could feel drops of tears falling onto her forehead. "You don't have a choice!"  
"I'm not letting you go this easily," Gwen choked on her own words, but she was struggling for things to do. "We've come too far for it to end like this. I am not giving up on you."  
"Gwen-" But the sudden crack from downstairs silenced her. Another and another. Something was trying to break down the door. Gwen rolled off the bed and ran to the window to check. She snuffed out the candle, but it was obvious that they had been found.  
"I thought you said you lead them away!" Cody yelled, gathering his things into his backpack.  
"They must have followed me." Gwen grabbed the bandage from the floor and quickly wrapped Courtney's ankle back up. "They're getting smarter."  
"What are you doing?" Courtney asked over the noise. "Stop it!" She wiggled her ankle out of Gwen's grasp, but it was already re-wrapped. "Just leave me here!"  
"No." Gwen's voice was stern enough to stop Courtney from arguing. Gwen was rarely a serious person, but this one instance made her more determine than ever to reach to island and get Courtney the help she needed. "I've already told you, I'm not letting you go this easily." She turned to Cody. "Make a distraction, I'll get Courtney out the back door." Cody nodded his head and started rifling back through his backpack for something useful. Gwen hooked one arm under Courtney's back and the other under her legs, picking her up and rushing towards the staircase. "You're gonna be alright," she whispered, but both girls knew that she was lying.


	11. Where It Doesn't Look Good

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Courtney's infected and Gwen doesn't know what to do. Determined to not put her out of her misery, she finds the answer in the most unsual form.

Gwen ran as fast she could, but Courtney was slipping out of her arms. Every time she stopped to readjust her friend in her arms, she would check over her shoulder to see if they were being followed. No infected were ever there. Cody had done a good job of distracting them. Every time Gwen thought of Cody her stomach started to knot even tighter with more worry, but she knew he was a smart kid. He wouldn't waste his life, not right now, not on the zombies.   
But Gwen had bigger problems. Courtney was sobbing and pleading for Gwen to just kill her. Gwen pushed the thought far out of her mind, letting Courtney's words wash away before they reached her ears. She could feel the blood pulsing through her friends legs, the veins in both legs now completely green. The skin was ashy grey and it was still spreading.   
Courtney continued to wince in pain between her tears and the begging. It was uncomfortable for her and she twitched constantly. The bite on her ankle was throbbing harder than ever and all she wanted to do was die so she wouldn't be in anymore misery. Gwen refused to think that way.   
They continued to run for ten minutes, into another neighborhood. Cody still had his walkie and his common sense, as well as Gwen trying to remember all road signs she passed; a skill she had gained from months of travelling. She spotted a safer looking house and shouldered her way inside. It was the same size as the last one, with a very similar layout, but it didn't look as trashed.   
Gwen placed Courtney on the staircase before starting her routine check of the house. No infected were obviously present so she began bolting all windows and doors at a Sonic the Hedgehog pace. Courtney slid her way up the staircase backwards, unable to stand on her legs. Gwen found her near the top and scooped her up again, carrying her into the master bedroom. She dropped her gently onto the bed and let Courtney arrange the pillows the way she wanted them, while Gwen pulled down all of the family portraits- she knew Courtney hated them, and couldn't say they were pleasant to look at herself.   
"I guess I'm not immune after all," the brunette joked harshly. Gwen raised her eyebrow, turning to face Courtney. "When we met...you told me you thought we were immune...but I'm not." Gwen rolled her eyes. "You want me to bite you and see if you are?" Courtney gave a weak smile, and Gwen was going to reply, telling her she was much more than immune, but Courtney cried out in pain, a fresh batch of tears making more marks down her puffed cheeks. Gwen panicked, jumping onto the bed and taking Courtney's temperature with her hand. She was burning up. A small part of Gwen knew that Courtney was going to die, but the majority of her mind was trying to gag that small part so it wouldn't talk anymore.   
"Gwen!" Cody's frantic voice filled the room. "Where are you?" Gwen grabbed her walkie from the side pocket of her backpack that she had dumped by the bedroom door.   
"Cody, where are you?" She answered, "We're in some place called Sillery."  
"I see a sign for that!" Cody gasped. There was a loud moan behind his words, but it wasn't coming from him. "See you soon!" He yelled.   
Gwen wanted to yell at him, but she knew it was too dangerous. If he was hiding the infected would be able to find him, and she couldn't risk that. Even though Courtney was her first priority, she cared for Cody too.   
The older girl moved to the window. The lights were off so no one passing by would have been able to see her, and it was the perfect spot to keep an eye out for Cody while also watching Courtney. Courtney was sniffling now, like she was suffering with an aftermath of a cold. Gwen wished that was all it was. She had no idea what to do. There wasn't much she could do but pray that the cure in Courtney's blood would fight off the infection, but even that was a skeptical hope.   
They sat in silence for a long time, and Gwen realized that Courtney had drifted to sleep. Her tanned skin was paler than usual, and her dark hair was scraggly, spread out across her pillow. The sweat that had gathered on her forehead had dried up, leaving a sheen of light from the moon in its place. Her legs were swollen, her jean shorts starting to stretch and rip. Her finger nails were covered in dirt, scratching lightly on the silky sheets, fighting away a fever induced dream. She still looked beautiful to Gwen, but it was obvious just how much she had been through in the past few months. She no longer looked like that scared little girl that Gwen had stumbled upon in the school. Courtney had grown up a lot since then. She was more mature, more domineering, more set in her ways than before.   
A small figure running down the street outside caught Gwen's eyes, drawing her attention away from Courtney's sleeping form. The silhouette ran past the house before Gwen called out for Cody. The shadow stopped, turning to hear where is voice came from. Gwen called out again and waved her arms. Cody waved his hand in acknowledgment, running back towards the front door of the house as Gwen ran down the stairs to unlock it for him.   
The air outside was bitter, no doubt turning from summer to fall. A gush of it fell through the house as Cody entered, locking the door behind him. He could see Gwen standing in the kitchen doorway, pistol in one hand. It was just a precaution, in case an infected had reached the door before Cody, but it didn't make him feel much safer. She had an almost crazed look in her eyes, and Cody knew she was stressed and scared for Courtney. Though he hadn't known them for very long, they had known each other for a long while. They were closer than most were in times of distress. Cody could fee Courtney slipping away from them, and he wanted to do the kind thing and put her out of her misery, but he didn't dare bring the idea up to Gwen; especially when she was armed.   
"Kitchen's empty. She's sleeping." Gwen's voice was monotone. "Be quiet." She moved past him to get to the staircase and started to climb. Cody followed a few steps behind. He wasn't quite sure what to do in this situation. He hadn't met anyone else since the infection spread, and having to deal with two emotional teenage girls was something he hadn't had to do since he last visited his cousins two years ago- he was out of practice.   
"What are we going to do?" Cody asked, spotting Courtney on one of the beds as he reached the top of the staircase. Much to his surprise, Gwen shrugged her shoulders. She was usually the leader of the group, the one with the plan to get them moving. It was her idea to travel to the island of Newfoundland and because of that the other two put her on a higher pedestal, which was pressuring, but Gwen took it in her stride. She was good at commanding the other two, but, for once, she was all out of ideas.   
Gwen slumped down on the floor just inside of the bedroom door, her back hitting the wall and her head quickly following. She didn't care, hoping it would knock some sense into her.   
Cody took a seat on a stool that was placed at the end of the bed. He didn't have a plan himself, which was strange for him because he usually did too. But this was one situation no one had seen coming. They had always been so careful before, never getting too close to the infected. Courtney was just the unlucky one.   
Gwen reached for her backpack, quietly rummaging through all the packages to look for something to eat. She wasn't very hungry, in fact she was feeling sick, but she knew she needed to eat something. If not for her own health, then just do get her mind on something else. Thinking of Courtney and the future all at once wasn't helping. It was cutting slices of her heart away, slowly driving her sanity levels to drop.   
At the bottom of the bag her fingers came across a piece of paper. She pulled it out carefully, not wanting to rip it any more than it already was. Cody eyed her curiously, not sure of what the paper was, but when Gwen unfolded it, Cody could physically see the brainwave hitting her.   
"I-I have to do something," she told him, getting to her feet.   
"Wha-"  
"Trust me." Was all she said before leaving, pistol in hand again. She also tucked her walkie into her pocket on her way out, which Cody knew meant she was leaving the house. The door didn't open, but he heard a window sliding open and shut again. He didn't bother going downstairs to lock it, letting Gwen have a way back into the house when she was ready. As far as Cody knew, the paper was blank and she just needed time to be alone.   
Cody jumped as Courtney starting panting heavily, struggling for breath. He moved to her side of the bed to find her still asleep. She was twisting and turning, crying out in pain, but her eyes remained shut. He bit his lip- a habit he had picked up from being around Gwen and Courtney- and moved to the other side of the bed, lying down next to her and placing his hand on her forehead. He found the same results as Gwen. He moved to roll off the bed, but Courtney's hand shot out, grabbing hold of his wrist and pulling him back to her with surprising strength. They were almost nose to nose when her eyes shot open. They were their usual coal black color, but it was as if her eyes had leaked. Now the whiteness was replaced with black and she reminded Cody of a demons he had seen in movies. His throat tightened, restricting him from screaming. Courtney blinked a few times, her eyes slowly melting back to their normal way.   
"Gwen," her voice croaked.   
"No, i-it's Cody," he replied.   
Courtney blinked a few more times, almost as if she was trying to remember who he was. Her eyes scanned his face before she hoarsely said, "Cody?" He nodded slowly. "My head hurts."  
"I-I'm-I'm going to t-to get you a cold compress," he insisted shakily. Without Gwen around he was alone with Courtney as her body slowly let the infection take over. He could easily shoot her and run. He had shot his own father, after all. But he was a better person than that. He didn't want the guilt to eat him alive because Courtney was still a living, breathing person. And Gwen would never forgive him. There was no one else left that had really cared for his father in his life, but Courtney still had Gwen, and Gwen refused to let Courtney go. Cody knew better than to kill in cold blood. 

 

It was a long time before Gwen came back. Cody had almost fallen asleep in the bed next to Courtney when he faintly saw her standing in the doorway. He wanted to move, but his eye lids felt too heavy, and he ending up drifting off anyway.   
Gwen didn't wake up, knowing he needed the sleep. Courtney was asleep again, too. Gwen had heard her calling out in pain as she had neared the house again, and it made her heart start to weep. She had slid into the house through the unlocked window, thankful that Cody had left it as a way in for her.   
Courtney whimpered in her sleep and Gwen was quickly at her side. She fished the soaking cloth out of the bowl of water by the bedside, something she guessed Cody had tried to get her fever down, and wrung it out. She placed it across Courtney's forehead, noticing her temperature was starting to go out, but the pain that flashed across her sleeping face looked more intense than before.   
Gwen didn't have any idea how to deal with this part of the process. She had never felt this way before. When her brother broke his arm, she had mocked him for it in a sisterly fashion rather than the caring mother role she usually had. His pain had been relieved by a lot of medication. Courtney didn't have any medication available for her pain, which made Gwen's stomach churn in a disgusted way. She wished she could run away, hide out on Newfoundland island and wait for the rest of the world to clock on to what was happening in Canada. Maybe a rescue party would show up after all, though it was a slim hope. But she also knew she couldn't leave Courtney and Cody, not now, not ever.


	12. Where It Actually Works

The rest of the night did not go smoothly. Courtney screamed and shouted, her voice echoing through the whole house, if not the whole neighborhood. It was a wonder that the infected hadn't found them yet, and Gwen was too busy to ask Cody what he had done with them. His distraction seemed to have definitely worked.   
Cody and Gwen took it in turns to sleep in another room while the other stayed with Courtney. They traded off every two hours, sharing a pair of ear plugs between them (luckily for them, one of the members of the house appeared to have been a snorer and their other half hadn't been too happy about it).   
Courtney barely slept all night, the pain that spread through her body was too much. She felt as if she was on fire, her body giving in to the flames. She hallucinated of being back in the sixteen hundreds, being burnt at the stake for being accused of witch craft. She cried and pleaded, but the towns council never believed her. Her body succumbed to the flames and she would come back to reality with a fright.   
Gwen didn't know what was going on inside Courtney's head, but it couldn't have been pleasant. She kept complaining of headaches and her fever had hit a whole new high. They didn't have a first aid kit in the house, Cody had searched everywhere for one, which meant they didn't have a thermometer to check exactly how hot Courtney was getting. Nor did they have any pain relief to give to her.   
The infection was spreading. Courtney's t-shirt and jeans had come away at some point and it was now clear to see the ashy, grey color of her skin had sprouted upwards, taking over her stomach now. It would devour her entirely before the next sunset.

 

Cody watched the sun rising from his seat on the windowsill. He and Gwen had traded off half hour ago and Courtney had been sleeping for the last forty-five minutes. There wasn't much to do around the house, and Cody didn't like prying into other peoples things, anyway.   
He was starting to drift back to sleep asleep, his head propped against the cold glass, when he first heard the engine. It woke his senses up. His eyes roamed both directions of the street, but he couldn't see anything. The vehicle was getting closer, but slowing down. Cody was no mechanic, but his father had been. He knew enough about cars (though not how to hot wire them like Courtney did) to distinguish different engine noises, and this one was definitely closing in on them.   
Gwen appeared in the doorway behind him, not able to sleep anymore. Once the over tiredness had passed, her stomach was knotting with worry all over again. She didn't know how the day would play out, but they were definitely stuck in the house. Courtney was in no condition to move anywhere, and they seemed safe enough where they were.   
"You should-"  
"Shh." Gwen raised an eyebrow at the back of his head, but could tell he was in deep concentration. She moved towards him, and she saw leaned forward, looking through the window in the same direction as he was, a shiny black jeep rounded the corner. Cody shot his arm out, pushing them both back. "Someone's coming."  
"It's for us," Gwen grinned hopefully. Cody looked confused, not sure if Gwen had finally lost it, but trusted her enough to run off downstairs to wait.   
Cody turned back to the window and watched as four people climbed out. The first was an orange haired boy who climbed out from the passenger seat in urgency, tripping over his own two feet and falling flat on his face. The door to his right opened up and out came another teenage boy, this one a lot taller and a lot thinner, as if he'd been stuck on a medieval stretching wrack. A single bag strap sat on his left shoulder and crossed his body. The bag sat awkwardly against his outer thigh. He ignored the boy on the floor and instead turned back towards the car, holding his hand out to help the third person out. She was shorter than the two boys, and a lot more graceful, but what drew Cody's attention was her bright red hair.  
Cody watched them walk to the front door and the orange haired boy banged his fist hard against the wood. He felt the vibrations through the house, but turning to face Courtney, he noticed she was completely unconscious this time. At least she wasn't crying out anymore.   
He quickly made his way to the top of the staircase and watched as Gwen undid all the locks, letting the three strangers inside. The red haired girl attacked her in a hug and Gwen hugged her back with a lot more force. Cody could feel the high emotions between them as he trotted down the rest of the stairs. The taller boy gave him a single nod while the orange haired one looked a little frantic.   
"Gwen?" He called out, slowly shifting his eyes from the other teenage boys back to the girl he knew.   
"Oh, right," Gwen quickly replied, pulling back from her hug. "Cody, this is Zoey, Mike and Sco-" But she stopped herself when a fourth person appeared in the doorway. She looked a little older than the rest of them, Cody noted, but definitely still a teenager herself. With long, dark hair and sharp, cold eyes that cut through the room. "What is she doing here?" Gwen shot, and Cody could feel the icy breeze that rushed between the two girls.   
"We had to bring a higher up," Zoey explained, turning her back on Heather and facing Gwen directly. "It was either her or Alejandro...and I-we figured she would be the better option." Gwen didn't look happy, and Cody was just confused by the whole situation, but no one said anything else because Courtney's shrill, piercing shriek filled the house. She could be heard screaming and shouting and Cody noticed the pain crossing Gwen's face.   
"That's our cue," Mike said, running up the stairs, quickly followed by Scott.   
"Cody go with them!" Gwen yelled. He knew she didn't mean to get angry at him, but he still nodded his head in fear and chased the others up the stairs.   
Heather shut the door behind her, locking it tightly. Zoey took Gwen's arm and walked her to the living room so they could talk about what had happened. Gwen hadn't said much when she'd called the night before, but Zoey knew how distressed this whole situation was for her. 

 

Courtney's shrieking did not quieten down. She writhed around on the bed, crying out in pain. The infection was eating away at her internal organs by now, Mike recognized the symptoms. Her skin was grey from her toes to her chest, and it was still rising. The veins in her legs were a sickly green, looking as if they were about to burst open with puss. Tears stained her cheeks and when he rested his hand on her forehead it burnt his skin. It was a wonder anyone could survive something this brutal, but, he guessed, no one really did survive it in the end.   
"Courtney, Courtney, look at me!" Mike shook her shoulders gently, trying to get her attention.   
"Gw-Gwen...?" She panted. "Gwen!"   
"N-No," Mike replied, faltering slightly. "It's Mike. You remember me, right? Mike from the survivors base."  
Courtney's eyes opened slightly, but she kept closing them in pain. Her eyes occasionally met his, and when they did they held some spark of recognition. "M-Mike?" She mumbled, her body weakening. "You-You-You were....and-and-and I was..."  
"You were the cure, yes," he smiled, knowing she was starting to understand. He knew when the infection got to your brain it affected your memory first. When Mike had been bitten he couldn't even remember his own name for a long time, let alone his own girlfriend. "You saved me, Courtney," he continued to talk, keeping her mind at ease. "And now I'm going to save you."  
Scott was on the other side of the bed, squeezing her hand, but he was feeling sick just looking at her. Cody lingered in the doorway, not sure of his place in all of this. He left the life saving to the professional looking people instead.   
Mike left Courtney's side for a brief moment, fiddling around in his black bag. He pulled out a long needle, followed by a syringe filled with an almost clear liquid. It had a slightly red tint to it, and Cody could only wonder if it had been mixed with blood, Courtney's blood, because from what he was gathering Courtney had some sort of cure, AKA, the liquid in the syringe.   
"Courtney, this is going to hurt a little, okay?" Mike told her as Scott wiped a disinfectant wipe over her right forearm, making patterns around her birthmark. "It's going to be worth it, though, because you're going to get through this." Mike lined the needle up against the small prick that was still visible from where the nurse had drawn her blood. "I promise." He stuck the needle into her arm, pushing the plunger down and letting the fluid take it's course through Courtney'd body.   
She screamed out louder than before. The fire that had lit her body was suddenly turned to ice, and it was shattering. Shards of broken glass pushed against her skin, her organs, pushing its way into every nook and cranny it could find inside of her body. It left her unable to breathe. She kicked her legs around and no one tried to restrain her, letting Courtney fight her way through the cure.   
Mike instructed Cody to refill the bowl beside her bed with cold water and Scott to find some sort of bucket. It was going to get messy.   
The way the cure worked, as Blainely had explained to Mike once he had gone through the process and she was able to monitor it, was that while the infection ate away at your body, the cure coated everything to prevent it eating away anymore, and then it would start eating back at the infection. Once the cure had overtaken the infection, it pushed its way out your body through your throat and out your mouth.   
Mike remembered the vomiting the most. While the pain the cure caused you was intense, the vomiting felt worse. It was like literally coughing up a lung. Acid lined your throat and every time you vomited out blood or bile you could feel the burn. You could feel the infection leaving your body, which sounded like it should be a bad thing, but it most definitely was not.   
Scott came back with the bucket just as it started. He must have ransacked the whole house because it took him twenty minutes to find one. Cody was back first, but Courtney wouldn't keep still long enough for him to press the wash cloth to her burning forehead, but Mike could physically see the temperature dropping within her anyway.   
Courtney's body convulsed as she threw up her insides. It started out a thick tar like substance, which choked her lungs and clogged her throat, and then it changed to a slick, green mucus that was easier to get rid of, but burned the inside of her mouth as if she was trying to not swallow fire.   
Once the first round was over, Courtney's head felt clearer and she allowed Cody to wipe her mouth up as she slumped back onto her pillow fort. She felt exhausted and slowly fell into a dreamless sleep. For ten minutes. Then the overwhelming urge to vomit hit her again and she found herself leaning over the bed and letting more of her insides fall out. Mike held her hair back, rubbing her back gently. He was the only one who knew what she was going through.   
The other two teenage boys had left the room by then, not able to watch for much longer. Scott didn't like to see Courtney in pain and Cody's weak stomach was not up for this. When Gwen questioned them about Courtney's state, the best they could do was shrug.   
"Mike?" Courtney's eyes turned to his, as if she was only now realizing he was there with her. "What-What..." But her words failed her.   
"It's okay," he told her, grabbing a hair elastic from the nightstand. He tied her hair up, out of her face, before helping her lie back down on the bed. He tucked her under the covers, knowing she was no longer burning up, and waited until she was completely asleep before leaving her be for a while. The next wave of nausea wouldn't be for another half hour or so, and it was best if she was left to rest.   
Once downstairs, Gwen pounced. "How is she?"  
"She's sleeping," he replied, taking a seat beside his girlfriend. "She'll be okay, Gwen. The cure should be extra well for her."  
Gwen was still worrying, though. She would always worry about Courtney, but when Zoey gave her a wholehearted smile, she couldn't help but smile back. Mike was fixed. Gwen could see that Mike was fixed by the fact he was out on the field without handcuffs. He was happy and healthy and for once his own smile seemed genuine.   
"Why should it work extra well for her?" Cody spoke up, breaking the happy moment.   
Gwen bit back another smile before turning to face him. "Did we ever tell you the story of how Courtney's the cure for the infection?"  
"No. You must have missed that part."

 

Her eyes woke to Mike's, which was not something she been expecting. He gave her a gap toothed smile and she realized she must have given him a look of pure horror.   
"Good morning to you, too," he grinned, and Courtney could hear the happiness in his voice. He hadn't sounded that way the last time they had spoken. He had been tired and beat, worn down and uncaring.   
"What..." But her mouth was too dry to form words.   
"You woke up a couple of times to puke yesterday, but you've been asleep for the last eight hours. Congrats, you're infection free." Courtney should have felt relieved. "You're not a zombie after all," he added with a wink and Courtney knew he must have overheard her at some point. The good thing about Mike was that he had always taken his...condition...with a grain of salt, and now he was taking Courtney's that way too. Almost as if it wasn't a life or death situation that they had both been facing.   
Courtney rolled onto her back, pulling the blanket up to her chin. She was suddenly aware that she was clad in only her underwear. Mike's smile widened.   
"Don't worry," he told her. "I have my own girlfriend to worry about." He rolled over, preparing himself for the day. "And speaking of girlfriends, Gwen said that I should tell you to wake her when you're awake, but, if I was you, I'd let her rest. She was up most of the night worrying over you. In the end Heather slipped her something to knock her out." Courtney would have been mortified if she didn't understand how much of a worrier Gwen could be. And then her mind caught up. Heather was here.   
The thoughts and feelings Courtney had been pushing down ever since she had left the survivor base were suddenly bubbling to the surface and Courtney thought she was going to vomit everything back up. And then she did. She grabbed the now clean bucket and threw up the contents of her empty stomach.   
Mike was instantly there, rubbing her back soothingly, questioning whether it was really all out her system or not, but Courtney insisted she was fine, just hungry. It had been almost forty-eight hours since she'd last eaten. Mike was skeptical, but let it go. Lucky for Courtney, teenage boys were still clueless, even in an apocalypse.   
He left her to dress and Courtney dug out a new pair of jean shorts, her last pair, from the back pocket of Gwen's backpack that she found on the floor. Her old ones were ripped down the sides from where her legs and swelled within them. She fished out a new black t-shirt from the closet in the bedroom and, though it was a little big, found it to be comforting.   
She was limping slightly and when she took the time to insect her ankle she could see why. Where the bite mark had been was a dent in her skin, like a crater formed in her leg. There were teeth mark scars dotted around, but it was all healed over with fresh skin, no blood, not stitches. The cure had worked.  
Courtney was some sort of happy. She jogged her way down the staircase, using her hands to tie her hair back. It was longer than what she was used to now, but refused to let Gwen cut it for her (considering the butter knife disaster she had done on her own hair).   
No one else seemed to be awake. Scott was stretched out on one of the sofa's and Courtney assumed everyone else was upstairs. Until she entered the kitchen. Heather was standing over the sink, staring out into the garden, lost in space, and then she saw Courtney's reflection. A smirk crossed her face.   
"Nice to see you back on your feet," she told her, though it wasn't an earnest confession. Courtney bit her lip, though she wasn't sure if it was to stop the rant forming in her throat or the bile from escaping the stomach again.   
Forgetting her hunger, Courtney did a one-eighty and exited the kitchen, heading towards the front door. That was where Gwen found her two hours later. Courtney had the hood of a car propped open and was tinkering around with this and that, pulling wires together and spinning her wrench around in hypnotizing circles.   
Gwen didn't say anything, she simply watched from afar until Courtney noticed her. Courtney wanted to smile, but she felt almost angry. She should have been grateful, but...  
"You didn't have to call them, you know," she said, though it wasn't angry. It was defeated.   
"What was I supposed to do?" Gwen questioned. "Let you die? Not a chance in hell, Courtney. I was not going to let you go through that! I was not going to me or Cody go through that!" Courtney ignored her words. "If this is about Heather, I share your pain-"  
"No, you don't. You don't understand how badly I am hurting right now. Not just from the infection aftermath, but...but to wake up to find her in the house. I couldn't...I can't..." Courtney tried to stay strong, but the tears were starting all over again. Gwen wanted to comfort her, but something told her she would only make it worse. Courtney continued to cry softly for a moment. "I just...I feel like a failure, you know?" Gwen bit her lip. "I-I wanted...I thought I was...I didn't think it would be me that let us down..."  
"You didn't let us down," Gwen insisted.   
"Of course I did!" Courtney countered. "I was the one that insisted we went to the base in the first place. I was the one that got my feelings mixed up with...with...with that asshole! I'm the one that got bitten the other night and we had to stop our plans f-for." Courtney's bottom lip was quivering and Gwen rushed out, catching Courtney as she fell into her arms. She ran her hands over Courtney's hair, whispering reassuring words into her ear. There was no way Gwen would let Courtney take the blame for any of it. Too much had gone on for anyone to want to play the blame game.   
"It's going to be okay," the older girl persisted, but she knew Courtney was skeptical. The brunette wrapped her arms around Gwen's waist, holding her close. She liked being close to Gwen. They still hadn't had a chance to discuss what had gone on a few nights ago, but somehow it didn't seem to matter. It was painfully obvious, even Mike had guessed what was going on between them.   
Gwen held Courtney closer, rocking her back and fore until she had stopped crying all together. She pressed a gentle kiss against Courtney's forehead before leaving her to finish on the car.

 

"Get in the car, Mike." Heather's teeth were pressed firmly together in agitation. This was not how things were supposed to go. She was supposed to show up, administer the cure, get a full progress report for Alejandro and get the three idiots back to base, which the option for Courtney and Gwen (and their dorky friend) to come back with them too.   
"Actually, Heather, I think I'm gonna stay here," Mike replied with a shrug. "If that's okay with the girls, that is." Courtney smiled her 'yes' to Mike while Gwen shot Heather a smug smirk.   
"I'm staying too," Zoey added. Mike slipped his hand into hers, smiling down at his girlfriend.   
Zoey had once told Gwen that if it wasn't for Mike, she would have been long gone from the survivor base. This was the moment she had been waiting so long for.   
Heather's cold stare turned to Scott, who trembled with fear. "I-I'll g-go with-with you," he told her. Though Scott's crush on Courtney was still there, he could see she didn't need him. The best thing he could do for himself was space from her.   
Courtney wrapped her arms around Scott's neck, pulling him in for a hug. He was shocked, to say the least. He froze up on the spot. "Thank you for coming," the brunette told him, giving Scott a peck on the cheek. That really did it for him and Heather had to physically drag him into the car.   
The trio had suddenly turned into a group of five, but no one was complaining. Three months ago, Gwen would have hated anyone invading her plans to get to Newfoundland island, but suddenly she was happier in that moment than she ever had been since the infection started. These people she was proud to spend her moments with, people she wanted to spend these moments with. This was her family.


	13. Where It's Necessary

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Because not everything can go okay.

Mike called dibs on driving and by midday the the five of them had set off in one of the four cars Courtney had fixed up outside of their latest safe house. She had been very angry upon seeing heather and hot wiring cars had become a relaxing treatment for her.   
It was a bit squished in the back seat with all three girls, but Courtney gave Zoey half her seat because she was too busy cuddling up to Gwen while napping. The cure had definitely worked, she was not in any more pain, but she was very tired. It had completely drained her body, which was why she had thought of hot wiring one of the cars in the first place. Walking for miles in the last of the summer heat did not sound like a fun activity.   
They drove for almost five straight hours, only breaking once at a garage to use the bathroom and get more gas. It was silent in the car, but not the uncomfortable kind. Everyone was at peace with each other.   
And then the car skidded. Courtney woke with a jolt and Gwen gripped onto her tightly. Zoey opened her mouth to scream, but it got lodged in her throat. Cody held onto the dashboard for dear life, suddenly very aware of his situation. Mike shook his head and got a grip back on the steering wheel, pushing his foot down on the brake pedal.  
Everyone fell forward and Zoey and Gwen both hit their heads on the head rests of the front seats before falling back against their own chairs. Courtney clutched at her heart with her fist, panting heavily, while Cody sat speechless, staring out the front window, but not quite seeing anything.   
Mike hit his head on the wheel, mumbling apologies to everyone. Zoey leaned forward, rubbing his back.   
"You're just tired," she whispered to him. "We're all okay, no one got hurt. You've been driving for too long." Mike shook his head, but didn't offer any words of protest.   
"Yeah, maybe I should drive," Gwen suggested, unbuckling her seat belt and sliding out of the door. Courtney and Zoey both moved over one space and Mike slouched in his girlfriends previous seat. Zoey placed her hand on his knee, but he shook it off.   
Gwen climbed into the drivers seat and started the car up again, per Courtney's instructions. They drove in silence again, but it wasn't nearly as comfortable anymore.  
They drove through New Brunswick, along the border to Maine. Everywhere looked deserted, and Gwen couldn't help but wonder where the entire population of Canada could be hiding. Surely not everyone was infected, but it was a complete wasteland in every city they entered.   
Gwen parked in the first house she saw upon entering Moncton. Mike and Courtney were asleep already and Cody was about to drift off himself. Zoey was too busy wringing her hands, lost inside her head, to notice Gwen had stopped the vehicle.   
"You okay?" Zoey turned her head to look at Gwen, her face full of worry. Gwen was concerned. The red haired girl nodded her head, but didn't say anything. She opened up the door, grabbed Gwen's backpack and entered the house. Gwen watched her for a moment before nudging Cody awake. He hadn't been sleeping too heavily and was able to stretch out his limbs before climbing out and following Zoey inside.   
Gwen bit down onto her lip and grabbed Cody's forgotten backpack, still filled with guns, before turning to face the two in the back. Courtney must have felt herself being watched because her eyes half-opened, looking straight ahead at Gwen. The older girl smiled first and the younger one joined in. Courtney scrunched up her face as she stretched her back, clicking her spine into place.   
"How are you feeling?" Gwen asked. Courtney lifted her head from Mike's shoulder before nodding. "We're going to stop here for the night."  
"I'll take first watch," Courtney insisted.   
"Me too." Both girls turned to Mike to find him now staring out of the window instead of fast asleep. Gwen didn't know if she wanted the pair of them on watch, she was more than happy to do it herself. "We've both been asleep for hours, we'll be fine," Mike told her, as if he was sensing Gwen's nerves. It wasn't that she didn't trust Mike or Courtney, she was just starting to feel a bit skeptical over the cure. What if it wasn't permanent? What if one of them turned in the middle of the night and attacked the other? Given that scenario was mostly aimed at Mike being the bad guy, Gwen didn't feel so safe. But she agreed, anyway.   
Once they were all inside, Gwen found the master bedroom while Zoey found the guest room, with an almost as large bed as the master bedroom had. Cody found himself in a young girls bedroom surrounded by the color pink and a truck load of assorted fluffy animals. Luckily he was completely asleep before he could process any of it.   
Courtney and Mike settled into the living room, not quite sure how to entertain themselves. The sun had finally finished setting by then and they were cast into darkness. There wasn't a lot to do but wait.  
"Can I ask you something?" Courtney spoke into the night. She was perched on the windowsill, supposedly watching out for infected, but she hadn't seen any yet.   
Mike sighed. "You want to know about what happened in the car." It wasn't a question so much as a statement.   
"...That's not what I was going to ask," Courtney replied, turning to spot him on one of the sofas across the room. "But now that you mention it, yes, what did happen in the car? You were driving perfectly fine and then...then we were veering off road."  
"I just..." His voice was strained, Courtney could tell just from the first two words, like it was hard for him to talk about this. It was unusual for Mike. Since Courtney had first met him, he had been an open book. He hadn't really beaten around the bush about anything, at least not since they all found out that he was infected. "It's sort of like a side effect...from the cure." That got Courtney's attention. "Sometimes I just...I black out sometimes, like I did when I used to turn. It's not so bad, though. Only for a couples of seconds at a time...but it's...it's scary. I get scared. I worry that I-I'm turning again and I start to panic because-because I can't let Zoey g-get hurt because of me."  
"I understand." Courtney's eyes were downcast, thinking hard about her own situation. She hadn't blacked out yet, and didn't know if she would because she hadn't fully turned like Mike had- if that's what you could even call Mike's situation.   
Courtney was worried about Gwen. Gwen was always worrying about her, she felt as if she needed to worry about her too, which she did. Courtney was scared that the cure wouldn't hold up, and Gwen wouldn't be brave enough to shoot and kill her. Cody would do it, Courtney decided. Maybe even Mike. Zoey wouldn't, Zoey was a bigger wimp than Gwen. Courtney mentally yelled at herself for insulting her friends, and for thinking in such a way in the first place. She needed to start believing that she wasn't turning after all. She was no longer infected and it was going to stay that way.   
"What were you going to ask me?"   
"Huh?"  
"You said you weren't going to ask me about the car," Mike explained. "So, what were you going to ask me?"  
"Oh..." Courtney turned her gaze back towards the window. "I uh...I wanted to know how you got bitten." Mike stared at Courtney and she could feel him doing so. "You don't-don't have to tell me-"  
"It's okay," he replied, getting to his feet. He stepped into the silver puddle of light that was gathered exactly in the middle between where they were both sat. He tentatively lifted the left side of his shirt, revealing a crater in his skin over his ribs, just below his heart. Courtney rushed forward, running her fingers over it. She could feel his ribs, but they were definitely not in the correct shape. "Alejandro reset them for me," Mike explained as Courtney continued to finger his bones. "That was actually how it happened...the survivors showed up in town, middle of the night, and Zoey and I went outside to see what was going on. The noise of the car had drawn in the attention of some infected and we were attacked. The survivors had weapons, Zoey and I didn't. I helped Zoey into the car, but...but I was bitten." He shrugged his shoulders as if it was no big deal, but they both knew it was. "Heather wanted to kill me on the spot, but Zoey begged her to not do it. Instead they decided to wait until I turned, keeping me in quarantine, so they could study me. Blainely knew about you and the cure, but she also believed that by studying me she could create a new cure. It never worked, though. Especially since I started to turn back to a human way in between my...episodes..."  
Courtney nodded her head, taking in all of his words. She didn't know how Mike could go through so much and still spend most of his time with a bright smile on his face.   
"It'll be okay," Mike continued. "For both of us." Courtney nodded, but she wasn't sure how much she believed it.

 

Around eleven, Zoey came downstairs to trade off with Courtney. She gladly gave the couple some time to themselves while she went upstairs to find Gwen. She was bundled under three blankets, halfway down the master bed. Courtney smiled at the sight. She removed her jean shorts, tossing them onto the armchair in the corner of the room where Gwen had her camo pants stashed.  
She looked so peaceful in her sleep, no worry or regrets staining her beautiful face. Courtney really did think Gwen was beautiful. She was pale as moonlight with eyes as green as the tree vines that used to climb the side of Courtney's house. When they'd met, her hair had barely reached her shoulders, now it was a cascading mess of destruction that Courtney wanted nothing more than to run her hands through. She settled for placing a gentle kiss against it before settling into bed beside her. Courtney leaned over and placed another kiss to Gwen's lips, which accidentally woke her.   
"Hey," the older girl mumbled hoarsely, her voice filled with sleep. Gwen wrapped her arm around Courtney's waist, pulling her to her. Courtney obliged, nestling her head into Gwen's shoulder. This was where Courtney felt safest, and quickly fell asleep after that.   
A few hours later she was awoken. Gwen had moved from the bed and when Courtney rolled over she found her standing by the bedroom window, looking down at the street through the Venetian blinds. She was still only in her t-shirt and panties, and Courtney couldn't say she wasn't enjoying the sight.   
"There's infected down there," Gwen whispered, sensing Courtney's erratic breathing.   
Courtney didn't say anything at first, she wasn't sure what direction to take the conversation. "I'm scared." Anyway would have been better than that way. It wasn't a total lie, but it wasn't quite relevant to the situation, either. Courtney just wanted Gwen back in bed. Which, lucky for her, Gwen obliged without worded consent.   
They curled up under the covers together, Courtney's head resting on Gwen's chest, Gwen's chin resting on Courtney head. They wrapped their arms around each other, keeping each other safe from harm.   
"Can we talk?" Courtney asked, wanting to get her mind onto things other than the fact zombies could attack their safe house at any moment.   
"What do you want to talk about?"  
"Can we talk about us?"  
"What about us?" Gwen asked, but she already knew. Courtney turned her body, resting on her elbows so she could look Gwen in the eye. They both wore serious expressions. They both knew this conversation was going to have to come eventually.   
"I-I like you, okay?" Courtney started. She wasn't exactly sure what she was going to say because every time she practiced this speech in her head it changed. "I like you a lot more than what a normal heterosexual girl should like another girl." Gwen broke out into a smile, able to see how nervous Courtney was talking about this. "But...but that's okay, you know? Because....Because I like you." Gwen started laughing. "This would be a great time for you to say something," Courtney prompted.   
"Of course I like you, you idiot," Gwen chuckled. "I thought that was obvious by now." She ran her hand down Courtney's embarrassed face.   
"Well yeah...but it's still nice to hear it..."  
Gwen moved her other hand to Courtney's other cheek and pulling her face down towards her own. Their lips brushed casually before Courtney took control, forcing her lips onto Gwen's. They both tasted of morning breath; a disgusting combination of rotting cheese and peeled onions, but neither cared. They stayed lying there, lips connected, not worrying about having to come up for air at some point. They both felt happy, they both felt safe. That was all they could ask for in each other.   
"So, ask me then..." Courtney whispered.   
"Ask you what?" Gwen feigned innocence. Courtney gave her a 'are you shitting me?' look to which Gwen laughed deeply. "Courtney," she said, running a hand down her tanned cheek. "Will you be my girlfriend?"  
"No," the younger girl dead panned and for a moment Gwen thought she was serious, before the shit-eating grin broke out across Courtney's face and their lips molded together all over again.

 

They made plans to leave after breakfast. Lucky for them, Gwen had managed to find a house with an near fully stocked kitchen. They'd awoken to Zoey's cooking skills which, to everyone's advantage, were the best. She managed to cook a bit of everything to keep everyone happy, and it most definitely did.   
After breakfast, Courtney went outside to hot wire a new car, one with a fuller tank and more leg room, with Mike acting as her bodyguard. Gwen and Zoey packed up more food while Cody checked over their weapon supplies.   
It felt like a normal, uneventful day, but Gwen knew deep in her heart that this was the day they were leaving for the island. It would take them maybe six hours to get to Sydney Mines in Nova Scotia and then a further six miles to Channel-Port aux Basques. Gwen had most of the map memorized, but the final stretch, this stretch, she knew for definite. Though she'd veered off trail a few times, she'd always managed to get herself (and the rest of the group as they joined) back on track to getting to Newfoundland island.   
"Where do y'reckon the infected go during the day?" Gwen asked, pulling a sack of food towards the new car.   
Mike pointed upwards, towards the burning sun, "Hiding."  
"Vampire zombies," Courtney whispered into her girlfriends ear with a sharp hiss. Gwen shivered with adrenaline. Being the horror movie geek she was, vampire zombies sounded a lot more entertaining than it should have.   
"Honestly, I don't know," Mike continued, a smile on his face as he helped Zoey with her own food sack. "They could be anywhere, really."   
"Which only makes them more terrifying," Zoey added, suddenly overly conscious of her surroundings.   
"I got you," Mike mumbled affectionately, wrapping his arm around his girlfriends shoulders, pulling her closely to him. They shared a hug while Cody gagged in the background. Gwen laughed at him, but Courtney nudged her to stop interrupting the cute moment between the couple.   
'Aww,' Gwen mouthed, pulling her own girlfriend in for a hug. Courtney giggled, wrapping her arms around Gwen's neck. Not that the rest of the group knew they were exactly a couple, but no one seemed to care enough to question it.   
Courtney decided to take a crack at driving today, but she barely made it an hour before her ankle-the one that had been bitten-was throbbing, so Gwen took over. Cody didn't know how to drive and Mike didn't want to risk another incident. Zoey was asleep, her head on her boyfriends shoulder.   
They were back to a peaceful silence again, listening to each others calming breaths. They made it another two hours that way, reaching just over the Nova Scotia boarder, before making a stop for lunch at an abandoned diner in some town they had ended up in.   
They messed around like kids, starting a trend of ketchup graffiti across the walls, signing their names, making sure if there were any travelers after them they would know someone was here before.   
It felt good to distract themselves for a little while. They weren't having to act like grown-ups with a serious mission. There was no life or death situation and there was no need to be in a constant state of worry or panic.   
Courtney attempted to teach Cody how to drive before he almost backed their car into a brick wall. They quickly abandoned that idea and let Zoey drive for the next two hours. They took one more bathroom break before Gwen drove them the rest of the way, all the way to Sydney Mines.   
There was an eerily quiet air about the docks. Courtney remembered when she was very little and her father bought his first boat. It was the only time they she had been to any sort of docks, and she couldn't even remember which one her fathers boat was docked at, but she remembered the atmosphere that had surrounded them. It was lively and energetic, everyone was excited about something. Courtney was excited to see actual sea water because living in the middle of a country didn't give a lot of room for that. She remembered her father throwing her into the air, catching her roughly before placing her on his shoulders. They'd boarded his boat with glee, and Courtney remembered exactly how special that moment had been. This new memory of a different set of docks was an alternate universe to that one.   
Gwen parked the car as close to the boat house as she could, but it got narrow and the group ended up abandoning it and walking towards the boats, bobbing on the water edge. As per usual, the place was deserted. Not a person, nor infected in sight. Gwen was starting to wonder if every other person really had become infected, or maybe there were other survivor bases they hadn't passed by on the journey. There was no real way of telling.   
Shaking her head clear of all the crazy thoughts bubbling around inside her head, Gwen ordered the boys to go find some keys. Courtney and Zoey each took a gun from Cody while Gwen still had her original pistol tucked away in her pocket. The three girls searched the boats, but didn't get too close. There was never any knowing who or what was hiding inside.   
They skirted around around each boat, casually avoiding any dripping in blood. It would have been suspicious if this place didn't have at east a few bloody hand prints. There was no doubt that the infection had reached this point because it was such a large place that had once been home to thousands of people.   
The boys were having worse luck than the girls. The few boat houses they found were foul. The sour air was that of decaying fish bait and rotting corpses. The zombies had dragged half eaten bodies into the wooden huts. Cody would have been more disgusted if he hadn't been living with a dead body for three months. Mike understood the need for the infected to feast upon human flesh; he himself had once had that need.   
Both of their stomachs held up as they continued the search for any set of keys and eventually they came to a commanding station where the spare keys were hung up along the wall. Mike was alone at first, since Cody had gone off in a different direction to make the search pass by faster.  
Mike didn't know anything about boats, and the keys looked like they could be normal house keys. Each one was different, but they all had similar white key rings attached. Each key ring had a letter and then a number printed across it, to which Mike took a guess designated the port that boat was docked.   
He heard the creak of a floor board behind him, but assuming it was Cody paid no attention to it. It wasn't until the usually chatty boy didn't say anything did he notice.   
"Hey, what's-" But Mike was cut short by his own shrill scream.  
The infected lunged for his throat, but he had already drawn his gun. Two shots to the chest and one through the neck. Both Mike and the zombie fell to the floor: one of them panting heavily, the other not breathing at all. It wouldn't have mattered if Mike had been bitten because of the cure in his system, or so Blainely's theory went (though, Courtney had the cure in her system before hand and had still half-way turned), but he was still over cautious. The last thing he wanted was another flesh wound, or to actually get infected again. The first experience had put him off it for life.   
A few seconds later, Cody came rushing through the office doors, pulling up short and sending an extra bullet through the infected's head, just in case.   
Mike struggled to his feet and grabbed a few sets of different keys before racing out. Cody's t-shirt clung to his scrawny figure with sweat and he was trying to catch his breath himself, but he still chased after Mike.   
They found the girls on the docks, only a short way away from where they had left them. Zoey turned to Mike with a smile, but it slowly melted away from her face. She was half-way through screaming her warning when Gwen shot her pistol, the bullet whizzing straight between the teenage boys. She had no idea how she got such a good shot, hitting the infected straight between the eyes and not catching one of her two friends in the process. The zombie fell to the floor in a heap and Cody sent a second bullet into's it chest.   
But that wasn't the end of it. Not far behind were another eight infected, followed behind by another six. There were more to come, the group knew that, but instead of staying to fight, they ran. Mike quickly read off one of the keys and they all started heading towards E 45. They made it to C 07 before Cody stopped, unable to go on anymore. He collapsed against the railings, heaving his breaths.   
"Cody!" Courtney called, being the first to notice him. The other three came to a halt with her, turning to their friend and jogging their way back to him.   
"G-Go on," the teenage boy wheezed. "Get o-on the boat. I-I'll-I'll hold them-them off." His breathing was labored, like an asthmatic without his inhaler.   
"Cody, what's wrong?" Courtney asked, noticing the problem before anyone else. She felt as if she knew Cody better than anyone else and she could sense the problem.  
Slowly, he peeled up his shirt. It wasn't clinging to him with sweat, it was clinging to him with blood. Cody's stomach was smeared in the thick, red liquid, and above his appendix was the gaping hole they all dreaded to see. He coughed some more, unable to hold his breath. His attention turned back to the advancing army that was still pursuing them.   
"I have the cure, we'll help you," Mike insisted, patting the black bag at his side. Heather had let them keep the two extra vials for emergencies such as this.   
"N-No," Cody resisted. "I have to do this...retribution."   
Tears were welling up in Courtney's eyes and she rushed forward, throwing her arms around Cody's neck. He hugged her with one arm, but used the other to keep his balance on the railing.   
"Please don't be brave," she pleaded, but Gwen pulled her back, away from Cody. If anyone understood why he had to do this, it was Gwen. The older girl nodded her head once before taking Cody's backpack. Zoey took over comforting Courtney while Mike hurried the pair down the dock, giving Cody a final salute of courage.   
"Thank you," Gwen breathed, not allowing herself to get overrun with emotions. Courtney was crying enough for the both of them. "Thank you for every thing, Cody." Cody nodded his head, standing up straighter than before. "You're a good person." And before he could argue she pressed her lips against his.   
Cody pushed her away just as the zombies closed in. Gwen fired her pistol at the nearest ones before turning and leaving Cody to deal with them. The last thing she saw was him bravely running through the crowd and the last thing she heard was his terrified screams.


	14. Where It Won't Get Wasted

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Travelling by sea may be safe, but what about the place they are travelling to?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is dedicated to Desire at gunpoint.   
> Lila, we're about to defy science.

Mike didn't have the slightest clue what he was doing, but he learnt on the spot how to drive a boat. Though it was very trial and error, he managed to get the basics down in about an hour. All that mattered was that they were away from the harbor, away from Cody's screams of pain as the zombies ripped his body to shreds, away from the haunting memories that mainland Canada had served them all.   
Zoey was in the covered half of the boat with her boyfriend, holding his hand protectively. They wanted to give Gwen and Courtney their space, allowing them to grieve in peace.   
Courtney was done crying by the two hour mark. He tears and run dry, but she found herself unable to sleep. Even with her head in Gwen's lap and her girlfriend playing with her hair. It wasn't enough to get Cody out of her head. This was the second time he had saved their lives, and he truly believed it was retribution for killing his father. He hadn't said it, but both girls knew how heavily it was implied.   
It was hard to think that they would never see him again. Courtney was reminded of the way he smiled when he had cooked them all breakfast on that first morning in his own house, or the way he had been so careful with her her bitten ankle, making sure to not hurt her anymore than she already was. He would bite the inside of his cheek when he was thinking and his eyebrows would scrunch together in excitement every time he got to look at the gun collection. Every little thing that had made Cody so remarkably unqiue was gone.   
"Do you feel it?" Courtney croaked into the darkness. She burrowed her face into Gwen's legs, lifting her ears to hear Gwen's reply, but unable to look her in the eye as she answered.   
"No." Gwen choked on her own lie. "A-At least not the way Cody did. I believe what I did was done under the greater good. Think of how many lives I saved by....by killing her. How many people does each infected kill? Ten? I saved ten lives."  
"Or you gave ten lives to be attacked by another infect..." The brunette mumbled. She rolled back around, resting the back of her head against Gwen's thighs. Their eyes finally met, both filled with pain and worry. "You never did get to telling me why you did it."  
"I wasn't sure if you'd heard me say it," Gwen replied honestly. Her body was rigid, scared of the memory that surfaced. Though she wasn't overridden with guilt as Cody had been, she still knew it wasn't the right thing to do. She was a good girl, not an evil person at all. She had spent most of her life teaching her brother right from wrong and had definitely been in practice at the time. "I didn't want to bring it up if you hadn't..." Courtney ran her hand down Gwen's cheek, and she turned her face into Courtney's palm, laying a soft kiss across her sweaty skin. "It was an accident, really," Gwen explained. "I hadn't even known what was going on at the time. It was the first I'd heard of the infection hitting my town. Liam had walked through the door just as my mother turned. She'd been complaining of being sick for days, but I passed it off as one of her things. I told Liam to leave, to run and not come back. He's fourteen, he's old enough to understand what was happening. I realized in that moment that he didn't need me to baby him anymore and-and now I don't know where he is..." The only thing that got Gwen's tears started was her brother. Courtney moved her hand to wipe them away, but more filled their place. "After he left, I'd picked up a kitchen knife for defense. My mother lunged, like they do, but she fell into the knife. Hit her right in the chest. I twisted it, gave it an extra jab, and then ran. I ran and I ran and I never looked back."  
Courtney understood the running part. She had ran too. They had all ran at one point or another during the infection, it was what made them survivors.  
"When..." Courtney stopped herself, but the look on Gwen's face begged her go on. They needed to start being more open with each other, they knew that. There were things going inside their heads that were hard to share, but they needed to be able to trust one another. "When I was bitten, you didn't shoot me. Why?"  
"Because I had- have feelings for you," Gwen replied, slightly tightening her grip on Courtney's hair. Her eyes said she wasn't lying, but they gave away that there was more to tell. Courtney didn't have to say anything for Gwen to know that she knew. "A-And I'm not a killer...I'll do what I have to survive, but I do know how Cody feels. How do you think I would have been if I had killed you, Court? I would have been a wreck. I could never do that. If it had come down to it I would have let Cody kill you and I would have ran again." Courtney was starting to run emotionally now. She couldn't return Gwen's pain and felt slightly unknowing about the fact that she hadn't killed a conscious person (assuming zombies were not conscious people). She wondered what it would have been like if she had had the guts to kill her own father when he had turned. Though what if situations seemed pointless, it was an idea that danced around in their heads.   
What if the infection had never happened?   
What if I had stayed in my own town?   
What if I had never left the school?  
What if I had never entered the school?  
What if Cody hadn't saved us?  
Twice?  
Three hours later and Cody was still a sore subject.   
Zoey kept glancing over at Courtney as they sat opposite each other on the back of the boat. They were wounded glances that Courtney chose to ignore. She didn't want Zoey's sympathy, or anyone else's sympathy. Courtney had bonded with Cody instantly, she had been more trusting in him than Gwen had been.   
There was nothing anyone could do or say that would make this pain go away from her chest. Time would have to heal this one alone. She made a vow in her head to never forget Cody and his brave actions, though she doubted she ever would. His last screams were imprinted into her mind in the worse way.   
When the tears started rolling down her face again, fresh from over thinking the memories, it was Zoey that went to her rescue. She wrapped her arm around Courtney's shoulders, nuzzling her face into the younger girls back. Courtney moved away instantly.   
The boat wasn't very big, but there was a storage hold below. Gwen was helping Mike steer them in the right direction with the GPS-like system they had found. It was quiet below deck, and dark. Courtney wasn't afraid of the dark anymore. Once, when she was a little girl, her aunt had fallen sick and was rushed to hospital. Her cousin had to stay with Courtney's family for the weekend. On the first night he was there, he had hidden underneath Courtney's bed, making noises into the night. When Courtney went to investigate, he pounced on her. She screamed and screamed until her father came running and scolded the pair of them for being so late. Ever since then Courtney had found it difficult to sleep with the light off, right up until she had been hiding in a strangers house just out side of her home town. She'd left a light on to help her sleep and woke up to an infected not so stealthily creeping into the bedroom. She'd screamed and screamed, but no one came running to help her this time. It had been her own initiative to grab her baseball bat from the floor and whack the zombie upside the head. She never slept with the light on again. The unknown of the dark had been replaced with the knowing of the light. It was a different kind of fear.  
The dark gave her time to think. Think over her life choices, her decisions that had led her here in the first place. She no longer heard Cody's screaming in her head but her own. There were some memories even time could not fade, though they felt dated.   
Courtney closed her eyes and dreamed of being back in her secluded corner of the school building. Her supplies would have long run out by now, but in her imagination it was comforting. Plenty of food, plenty of shelter. In the fantasy she had learnt how to work the heating system, so the winter months would still bring warmth for her. There were no infected pursuing the building and instead a rescue team showed up, saving her from the perils.   
Gwen didn't make an appearance. Courtney started to doubt herself.   
"Hey," she felt a cold hand on her shoulder and braced herself to grab her gun. "Whoa." It was Gwen. Courtney sighed a breath of relief. "You've been down here a long time, I was starting to get worried."  
"What's new?" It was snarky, but she was tired. Gwen didn't take any notice.   
"It will still be another few hours before we get to the island, you should rest." Courtney couldn't have agreed more. She allowed Gwen to help her sit up before she placed a cold pillow and blanket onto the crates Courtney had been resting on. The younger girl laid back down and it was comfier than it should have been. Gwen placed a peck to her forehead, not wanting to disturb her rest with anything more passionate, but when she pulled away Courtney grabbed out for her.   
"Stay with me?" She asked wearily, her voice drowning in sleep. Gwen couldn't protest against her, her own body giving in to the need to sleep. She crawled up next to her girlfriend, wrapping her arm protectively around Courtney's waist, pulling her close. The shared touch made them feel closer in more than just a physical way. Their bond ran deeper than either ever expected, but it was something they would not want to share with anyone else. It was comforting and safe. The dark, nor the light, could harm them now. 

 

It was still dark when she woke with a jolt of energy. Courtney was used to waking up to dawn peeking through the window of a make-shift camp. There were no windows on the boat.   
She turned to her side to see Gwen sleeping peacefully. It was only when she saw the innocent expression on her girlfriends face was she painfully reminded of why she had woken up. The nightmare had been real enough, almost too real for her to handle.   
_"Gwen, please," I begged. "You-You can't do this! I-I love you!" But she never moved the gun. It was pointed at my face, her body towering above my own. I had sunken to my knees in pain. Blood ran down my hands and when I tried to wipe it on my shirt it only got stickier.  
"I have to do this," Gwen replied. "I can't risk you hurting anyone else." It was over in a millionth of a second. The bullet was in the gun. The bullet was in my head._  
Courtney had been infected in the dream. She remembered re-experiencing all the pain. It was so real she could still feel it now.   
Catching her fragile breath, she slipped out from the temporary bed, sliding up the staircase to get back onto the main deck of the ship. Gwen didn't even notice she was gone.   
Zoey was curled up on a similar looking cot to the side of the wheel. Mike was sitting on a box the other side, his eyes saying wide-awake, his body posture saying dead beat. He noticed Courtney's presence from the corner of his eye, but he was too in tuned to his surroundings to know she wasn't a threat.   
"Nightmare?" He guessed, to which she nodded. "It's a side effect." Mike waited until Courtney was sat down beside him before tapping her temple with his finger. "The infection ate away part of your rational brain, though lucky you was only half-way through the process, but it means that you're going to not be in the right frame of mind for a while. There's no guarantee that the cure will grow back your brain, but...never say never, right?" Courtney didn't react, which forced Mike to continue babbling on. "I get them too, so don't worry. They're m-mostly about Zoey. I don't...I can't lose her."  
Courtney agreed that she wasn't in her right mind frame. She could physically feel the different kind of brain sitting inside her head. She noticed herself doing things differently and acting slower, but more heated. The rational part of her brain felt like it had been melted and hardened into a new shape. But she understood what Mike was saying; she couldn't lose the one she cared about most. No matter how many nightmares she had where Gwen held a gun to her head, Courtney knew that she would never do it in reality. Gwen had said she wouldn't do it herself, and the only reason Courtney had even been dreaming about the subject was because of her own idiocy to bring up the conversation.   
There would have been silence, but they were out in the open. Zoey snored lightly, but it was washed out by the sound of the water. It was almost completely still, but it sloshed against the sides of the boat as it charged forward.  
The moonlight was not very clear, and Courtney couldn't see the island they were approaching. She strained her eyes, but nothing turned up. She suspected they couldn't have been that far away. but Mike assured her there was still another long hour to go, if his calculations were correct. Anyone else could have been scared to have a boat manned by someone who had no idea what they were doing, Courtney was just glad Mike was willing to give it a try. A bad captain is better than no captain. 

 

Gwen resurfaced just as the the port came into full sight. It was nearing three in the morning, but Mike managed to dock the boat without too much damage. Though, he did make sure to leave his mark on the walk way ahead by driving straight into it. The splintered wood creaked more now as they walked over it. If this had been the mainland then they would have been crawling with zombies already from the noise pollution they caused. Gwen was hopeful.   
Courtney grabbed her girlfriends hand, a little more doubtful than she was. Mike took the lead of the group and Zoey clung to his back, almost scared of the new place.   
The docks were mysterious, but luckily looked nothing like the ones they had departed. A mirror image would have been too much to handle and Zoey may have finally let her own emotions get the better of her. It wasn't that she knew Cody well, but in the short two days they had spent together she had grown to respect him a lot more than most had in his whole life. Cody appreciated it a lot, and Zoey was glad to have made a new friend. She hadn't wanted to let her own grievances out on the boat, she didn't want to make Courtney or Gwen uncomfortable because they were going through their own grieving. Now though, Courtney seemed more sturdy, and Gwen had never really broke down in the first place.   
The water lapped around the edges of the island, but it grew distant as the group of four walked further inland. There wasn't much around, and the place looked just as abandoned as the mainland did, if not more.   
There were weeds growing in the overgrown grass. It was really the first sign that something was wrong. If this place was still up and running, someone would have kept the fields cut down. If this place was still up and running, the wooden beams would not have been collapsing into the water. The four jumped at the sudden noise of one crashing into the water, forcing a small wave to swim out to sea. It looked like it was escaping, and Courtney had a knot in the bottom of her stomach, the kind that said they should have been following it.   
The further away from their boat they walked, the worse the feeling got. The feeling of being alone. The feeling of being watched.   
Courtney squeezed her girlfriends hand tighter, but she couldn't meet Gwen's eyes. They continued to walk side-by-side out of the port until they reached the main gates. They could make out a parking lot on the opposite side of the road, but it was just as empty of life as the the docks had been.   
Mike picked the nearest car, wishing he had his flashlight. Gwen's had long run out of battery and they were short of spares. Courtney knew what she was doing though, and made haste of lifting the hood to get a better look of the insides. She wasn't first to scream, though.   
Zoey opened up the car door, expecting to be able to curl up on back seat, but instead the pile of bones fell at a heap around her feet. The skull laid face up, and Zoey let out a scream that pierced through the thick tension air.   
Before the red haired girl could react, Gwen and pulled her gun and was shooting at her. But not at her, just behind her. She heard the thud and when she turned around, there laid an infected on the ground, still groaning, so not dead yet. Mike fired another two shots before it fell silent.   
"Run."


	15. Where It Doesn't Go According To Plan

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Because not everyone can survive in a zombie-eat-human world.

Zoey could hear the gun shots, but she refused to turn around. Any member of her team could be dead and she wouldn't know. She kept running and running, glad that Gwen hadn't given her a gun and expected her to shoot. Zoey wasn't a violent person, towards zombies or otherwise. She hated conflict for the most part and was usually seen as the peacemaker among her friends. Even now, in life or death situations, she just wanted to sit around with the zombies and talk about their issues rather than resort to cannibalism.   
Gwen continued to shoot her gun over her shoulder. It got to the point where she didn't even care if she was hitting anything anymore. The zombies were faster here than they were on the mainland. It was one of the many reasons she was starting to feel like a failure. Back on the mainland this had been some crazy dream, but now she was living in the reality of more advanced infected, she knew she was the one at fault. It had been her goal to get to the island of Newfoundland. It had all been down to some stupid conversation she had overheard ten months ago. And now, here she was, doubting herself more than ever.   
Mike didn't let up his own shooting. He turned around every now and then, running backwards and shooting his gun wild west style. All that was missing was the cowboy hat and a pair of spurs. He couldn't say he was enjoying being chased by the zombies, but he also couldn't say he remembered what life was like when he had never been in this situation before. Even though Gwen's idea of a safe island had been skeptical from the start, Mike was certainly not blaming her for this.   
Courtney was pissed off. Her ankle was throbbing, her gun out of bullets, she didn't feel safe in her own skin. There was a glitch in her head that made her eyes water and her hands want to reach out and start shooting against her own team. Maybe being out of bullets wasn't so bad. But she kept running anyway, following Zoey while Gwen and Mike did all the fighting. She pushed her fears and dizziness aside, knowing she could fight them later.   
The group made a right turn down an alley way. It was still dark out, nearing 4AM now. The sun wouldn't rise for another three hours, but Courtney didn't think she could keep running for that long. She wasn't sure if she would make it another three minutes. Her chest was starting to heave and a sour bile creeped up her throat. It was by chance that Zoey spotted the guard house in the distance. It was surrounded by a wrought iron fence, the front gate wide open. They piled inside, still a slight advantage on the oncoming zombies. Mike and Gwen started to push it shut, and it took Courtney to join in for them to be able to bolt it shut just before the infected arrived. They tried climbing and sliding through the gaps, but it was a solid structure, built to outlast worse than a zombie apocalypse.   
Tears were streaming down Zoey's face by the time they collapsed inside the quaint living room of the house. Courtney had curled up on the sofa, her face hidden in her knees. Gwen was doing a sweep on the house, a habit she didn't want to break, while Mike checked over all of their supplies.   
No one had much to say to each other, and none of them felt like sharing anything, either. It wasn't until Gwen was so fed up of her own thoughts that she would rather get yelled at did the silence break.   
"I'm sorry," she whispered, squeezing her eyes shut. She didn't want to cry, but there wasn't much stopping her anymore. The emotions she had bottled up were seeping through their chains. Her facade of being fearless wasn't holding up very well, but no one held it against her like she feared.   
Courtney wanted to comfort her girlfriend, but somehow she couldn't bring herself to do it. She was retreating into her own shell of self-doubt.   
"It's not your fault." Mike tried to encourage, but it fell flat. "You knew as much about this island as the rest of us did-"  
"It was supposed to be safe!" Gwen countered angrily. "For fucks sake," she slapped her palms over her face, leaving only her mouth and nose open for viewing. "This was supposed to be a safe place for us, a place to hide out until we got rescued from this damn forsaken infection!" No one stopped Gwen from picking up a fallen cushion and beating her fists into it, or slamming it repeatedly against the floor in an attempt to make herself feel better. The other three knew that it was better than her beating on them, or even herself. "I. CAN'T. FUCKING. BELIEVE. HOW. WRONG. I. WAS! I. HATE. THE. FUCKING. GOVERNMENT! AND. I. HATE. THE. STUPID. INFECTION!" She punctuated each word with a direct hit on the small pillow, throwing it around like a punchbag. The seam gave way before Gwen did, tearing slightly as she turned her fists into claws and scratched her way through the material. By the time she was finished her eyes were red and no one was paying her any attention.   
Mike had wandered off to the kitchen to see if he could make some food, and Zoey had fallen asleep. Courtney was wrapped up in her own mind, beating herself up mentally instead of beating a cushion up physically. Somehow, through all of the mixed up mess, she was blaming herself. A long time ago, when Gwen had told her of her plan, she had known it was a stupid idea. She knew she should have said something, convinced her that this was the worst plan she had ever heard of. Surviving was better than trying to find a way out.   
"You think I'm a failure," Gwen stated, spotting her girlfriends glassy stare.   
"Only as much as you think I am one," Courtney replied, but not in her usually snappy tone. If Gwen had said how much of a failure she was twenty-four hours ago, Courtney would have whipped her into shape. Now, though, Courtney could feel her brain rewiring itself into a different thinking capacity. She didn't know if this was what Mike meant by the cure rebuilding her organs, but she knew she didn't like the feeling. It made her feel weak and defenseless, but it also made her feel invincible at the same time.   
Both girls turned to each other, their eyes meeting in a sad exchange. Gwen moved first, sitting on the edge of the sofa by Courtney's knees. The younger girl pulled her to her, holding her close for comfort. They switched roles that night, letting Courtney protect Gwen from the big, bad world they lived in. It didn't feel normal, but it felt right.

 

Morning came with the smell of Mike's sizzling bacon. He was shirtless in the kitchen, to which Courtney found rather amusing. Zoey was sitting at the table, too, mindlessly stirring her coffee as she drooled over her boyfriend- Courtney found that most amusing of all. Sometimes it was nice to see the two of them acting like an average teenage couple. It was so hard to get caught up in all of the bad things in their new world that it was so easy to forget the good. Mike and Zoey had been through a lot together since the infection started, but somehow, Courtney could see that they had never once decided to give up on each other. Through everything that had been thrown their way, zombie bites and a virtual relationship included, they had made it.   
It was inspirational, really. Courtney would steal glances at Gwen's sleeping form on the cough through the doorway, and she could still feel her own butterflies in her stomach. She had her doubts, there was no denying that, with every nightmare she had taking away more of her sanity, but Gwen brought it back. Gwen grounded her to reality in a way she had never been before.   
It wasn't long before all four of them were awake and crowded into the kitchen. Mike had checked the front windows and there seemed to be no sign of infected life anywhere- or uninfected life, either.   
Gwen, however, did make a discovery. As she investigated the kitchen, she found herself facing a stack of what originally appeared to be paperwork, piled on top of an old, worn out desk in the corner of them room. She found them to be plans upon a closer look. Plans for some sort of escape from the island.   
Zoey read over her shoulder, gasping at the very idea of what was written down. The horrors didn't seem real, and it wasn't until Courtney pushed back the curtains to take a peek at the back yard did it start to seem so.   
The garden was long and narrow, a massive oak tree standing directly in the middle. It's branches reached out over the neighbors fences, but it looked like all of the neighbors were close enough.   
Each one dangled from a thin piece of rope, all too desperate to escape this life. It wasn't much of a life worth living, Gwen concluded, when you were a prisoner on an island. Their bodies, all six of them, were completely lifeless and rotting, but they were still intact. That did mean that the zombies couldn't get through the iron gates, otherwise they would have had a decent meal by now.   
Courtney dropped her slice of toast on the floor and Mike shut the curtains before Zoey could see. Gwen opened up a drawer on the desk, preparing to hide the papers away, but came across a better one. She dropped the horrid plan on the floor, kicking it aside for good measure, before picking up the new piece from the drawer.   
"What's the date today?" She demanded, looking between her three friends. Mike was the first to react, pulling his well kept cell phone from her back pocket.   
"Eighteenth," he replied, flicking through the screen of the phone. "September eighteenth."  
"We have time!" 

 

By the time Gwen had explained the plan thoroughly, everyone thought she was crazy.   
"There is no way in hell that this is going to work, you realize that, right?" Courtney accused. Gwen rolled her eyes at her girlfriends doubtfulness. "The zombies here are nothing like the ones on the mainland! In case you haven't noticed, they are faster and stronger and we are not going to make it a mile down the street, let alone one hundred!"  
"Stop being so pessimistic," Gwen argued back. "We don't know what's going to happen unless we try."  
"I am not being pessimistic!" Courtney was outraged. "I am being realistic! You're being stupid!"  
"Calm down," Mike interjected, shushing both girls. "Gwen, your plan is stupid, Courtney, you're being pessimistic. I think we should at least try it. Yes, the infected here are a lot more strategic than the ones we're used to, but this can't possibly be the only safe house along the way. If we run into trouble it won't be so hard to shoot and hide, like we did last night."  
Gwen nodded her head, getting up to start packing her bag again. She dropped the flyer on the table.   
_Attention! Attention! For those who are uninfected, there will be several helicopter trips leaving from Saint Andrew's airport during the week of September 16-20. A helicopter is leaving for Florida where a plane ride will be arranged to take you to London, England. It's the only known clean are. Anyone left behind will be at risk._

 

The house was silent as everyone prepared. The small group avoided the kitchen area as best they could, only allowing for Mike to pack as much food supplies as her could, but even his gaze kept shifting towards the curtained windows.   
Gwen was replacing all of the empty bullet canisters in the pistols when Courtney crept up behind her. She didn't notice until her girlfriend was sat directly beside her, their knees brushing together.   
"I um...I'm sorry f-for calling your idea stupid," Courtney mumbled. A smile played on Gwen's lips. She liked watching Courtney struggling to apologize, it was one of her favorite things about her- though she would never tell Courtney that.   
"It wasn't supposed to be this way," Gwen admitted. She wasn't so angry anymore. "This was supposed to be a safe place, you know. Somewhere we could sit and wait out the rest of our lives if we had to." Courtney nodded her head along to her girlfriends words. She was feeling a lot calmer now too. Courtney had never had high hopes for the island of Newfoundland, but this was definitely not what she had expected to find here.   
"It's just...I'm scared, okay? I'm scared that what we face out there is going to be too much for us. I don't want to fight anymore." Gwen never noticed the lines around Courtney's eyes before, the ones that made her look much older than sixteen. It had been a long five months since they had first met. They had both changed and grown, forced to grow up a little too quickly.   
"Life is a circle," Gwen replied, going back to her guns. "Bad things happen and then good things happen. You have to fight the bad to get to the good. And then fight more bad to get to more good. I lost my family, I found you. We'll have to kill a few people, but, in the end, we're going to live happily ever after." Courtney snorted. "Maybe no happily every after...but you get what I mean. The circle of good and bad keeps on turning."  
Suddenly, Courtney dropped two travel bottles of conditioner into Gwen's lap. "Happy birthday."  
"What?" Gwen's face was one of complete confusion. She picked up the bottles and turned to face her girlfriend.   
"September eighteenth. It's your birthday." Gwen blinked a few times before sitting up straight. She turned her focus back to the guns, but her attention wasn't on them. Zoey had said it was September eighteenth today. That was her birthday. Gwen was eighteen years old today. And Courtney had remembered. "I-I know it's not much, but I didn't exactly have time to get you anything useful..."  
"It's great," Gwen beamed, throwing her arms around her girlfriends neck. Courtney was slightly shocked, but moved her arms around Gwen's waist, holding her closely.   
Mike and Zoey joined them shortly after and they headed outside.   
It was midday and there were no signs of infected. Gwen was starting to pray that they were similar to the ones on the mainland in the fact that she had never seen those before sunset. She stood guard as Courtney hot wired another car for them. It was an easy process, one that took no more than a few minutes now. In the start it had been hard, but five months down the line Courtney was nothing less than a pro. Gwen mentally thanked Duncan, but didn't waver on that thought for too long.   
Zoey was stretched out in the back seat of the car, her feet on her boyfriends lap. She was snoring peacefully, and no one wanted to disturb her. Though, in the long run, Courtney found Zoey kind of useless, she knew that their team wouldn't be complete without her there. Though, in the beginning, Courtney preferred to be a lone ranger, once she had met Gwen her idea changed to being a duo. They had worked well together, but after meeting Cody she found that a trio was best. Until Mike and Zoey joined them. Each time someone came along, they brought something new, something that Courtney admired them for.   
"All ready," she stated, wiping her sweaty palms on her shorts. Gwen jumped into the drivers seat and Courtney sat beside her. She started the engine and they were off.   
Mike was reading directions from a map they had found, but it was mostly one trip down Highway 407. Courtney drummed her fingers against the dashboard, her eyes on alert. They never rested, much like her nerves. She was wary of her surroundings, her mind pointing out all places a zombie could spring from. Nothing ever came from it.   
Courtney was over thinking the whole situation, but no one could blame her. There was a lot of knowing going on inside her subconscious. She knew it was not safe for them anywhere in Canada, and a trip to Florida and England sounded much better. The flyer Gwen had found was something none of them had seen on the mainland, which still plagued the idea that there was no real rescue mission at foot. Maybe the statistics were against them. Maybe the rest of the world believed that everyone in Canada was infected and that was the end of the country. There was no knowing, but Courtney couldn't help guessing.   
"Fuck!" A loud yell came from the back seats. Gwen immediately pulled the side of the road, her eyes searching the rear view mirror. Mike was clutching at his rib cage, inhaling deeper breaths than usual. Zoey was awake now, running her palm over her boyfriends back, but there was a definite panic in her eyes.   
"Are you okay?" Courtney demanded more than asked.   
"Yeah, yeah..." Mike managed to mumble once the wave of pain had passed. "I just...sometimes it hurts, that's all. Sorry to say so, but you get to look forward to this, Courtney."  
"Lucky me," she replied quietly, and Gwen noticed her face pale. Courtney turned back around in her seat, facing out of her side window, out to the field   
"That was just a particularly bad one," Mike continued on, his forehead pressed against the back Gwen's headrest. "They're not always that painful."  
Courtney started the engine up and again and Gwen put her foot down on the pedal, speeding off, almost as if she had to make up for lost time. No one told her to slow down. The worst she was going to do was hit an infected, which no one would complain about in the long run.   
Mike continued to direct Gwen on where to go, rounding corners and bends, forcing down the burning sensation in his lungs. This was what scared Courtney the most about the cure; no one knew what happened with it. Blainely could guess all she wanted, but science didn't know everything. Mike was in agonizing pain behind her, and all Courtney could think was what she would do if it was her in so much pain. She knew she wouldn't stay as positive as Mike was, she'd be a forced to not be fucked with.   
"I see it," Zoey said, pointing to the top of a building that was barely visible between the trees. Everyone strained their necks to get a good look, but once Gwen had rounded the final corner they saw it. Fields stretched for miles in every direction, but in the center was a small building. The parking lot wasn't empty, which did put some hope back into their eyes.   
Gwen pulled the car into an empty space near the back of the lot. There was one other car that far back and a small tool shed just off to the left.  
They hadn't made more than a few steps before Mike collapsed on the ground. Zoey gasped, rushing to his side, while Gwen and Courtney became suddenly all too aware. Mike managed to get onto his hands and knees before Zoey had even reached him, but it seemed to only induced more pain. He cried out again, this time loud enough for the attack to commence.   
Three zombies filed out from the shed, all lunging for Courtney and Gwen. They both had a good enough aim and shot them before they could get much closer. As if from no where, dozens more appeared, some running from the building, more from the shed, some seemed to apparate from thin air.   
Zoey had grabbed Mike's gun and was shooting herself, her peaceful nature aside. But it was no use, the zombies kept coming. Mike managed to get to his feet and Gwen tossed him another gun. He pushed the aggravating pain down to his stomach, swallowing it completely before starting to fire.   
There was the psychological process behind the shooting. Both Courtney and Mike were hyper aware that this could have been them. Zoey and Gwen weren't as exposed to that ability, so they shot without mercy (well, maybe a little mercy on Zoey's part), but Mike and Courtney knew what it was like to be one of these infected. It was a daunting thought, one that plagued both of their minds, one that they both had to fight away to make sure that they kept up their end of the shooting.   
In the distance, on the opposite side of the airport, the whir of helicopter blades could be faintly heard. Courtney lifted her head for a moment, her focus zooming in on the helicopter that was coming in to land.   
"THAT'S OUR RIDE!" Gwen yelled above the groaning and the gun shots, but no one could move. Zombies were zoning in from every angle now, and it didn't appear as if help was on its way from any stragglers in the airport, either.   
Courtney started making a path towards the building, as difficult as it was. Mike caught her drift and started to follow. Zoey was his shadow, never leaving Mike's side, while Gwen lagged behind slightly, finishing off the zombies closest to her before following the rest.   
They made it halfway to the building, but it was impossible to get any further. They were completely surrounded and out of ideas. Both couples were back to back, firing their guns, but were all dangerously low on bullets. Gwen wanted to be able to distribute more guns, but there wasn't much time for that in the situation. Courtney tried to make another path towards the building, but it was no use, the zombies had clocked onto that plan already.   
On the nearest side of the parking lot was a cluster of dark blue dumpsters. It took a moment, but Courtney managed to formulate a new plan in her head.   
Bullets continued to fly for a brief second before Courtney found the courage to speak.   
"I'm going to distract them," Courtney explained.   
"No," Gwen quickly snapped, firing her gun over her girlfriends head, slamming the bullet into the forehead of an infected that was getting too close.   
"There's no other choice!" Courtney argued.   
"No-"  
"Gwen," Courtney pulled her girlfriends face to her own, giving her as much passion into that final kiss as possible. "I love you. But I have to do this."  
Before Gwen could even reach out to hold her back, Courtney was already gone. The zombies weren't holding up so strong on the sides, and she managed to make a path through that way rather than forward. Mike instantly clocked onto the rest of the plan as he watched Courtney climbing up onto a dumpster. She almost fell, but once she had found her footing, she lifted her pistol into the air and fired three loud shots.   
"HEY!" Courtney called out, catching the attention of a few infected. Her plan worked because they started moving towards her.   
Gwen was still firing, but once she noticed that the zombies were wading off towards her girlfriend she started to scream. She wasn't sure of the words coming out of her mouth, but she could hear Courtney's: "Mike! Make sure she gets on that helicopter!" And then she jumped. Landing safely on her feet, Courtney started to run away from the zombies, allowing them to chase her. They all knew that Courtney's bad ankle wouldn't hold up for long, and they would get her like they had Cody.   
Mike finished off the remaining zombies that hadn't gone after Courtney, before grabbing Gwen who was trying to chase after the crowd and dragging her, kicking and screaming, towards the airport.   
There was doubt about why Courtney would do such a thing. Cody had a motive, an eternal guilt trip to end. Courtney only had her fear, the fear of the unknown. Though she had always been a flexible person, she was terrified of herself and her body and what was going to happen to her after everything she had witnessed Mike going through.  
Zoey followed closely behind her boyfriend and hysterical friend. Their were tears in her own eyes, but she was fighting everything she had to not let them fall just yet.   
They made it safely into the building and once Mike had got Gwen to cooperate with him, they set off towards finding a way onto the runway before the helicopter left again.   
There were no other people in the airport, which struck them as odd as it had when there were no people in the rest of Canada, but they didn't dwell on it. Instead, they kept on running. Towards the end of the building they found a doorway that led them into what must have once been an executive lounge, and, what made them really happy, was the helicopter pilot was sat there with an outdated newspaper.   
He regarded the three of them over the top of the paper before placing it down, eyeing each of them suspiciously.   
"I thought I saw four of you." He spoke with a rusty voice, but an uncaring tone. It was as if he was indifferent to the horror movie type world around him.   
"Yeah, you did," Mike replied, taking charger now that Gwen seemed unable to function her brain properly. He kept a close arm around both of the girls as he spoke. "But now there's three of us."  
The pilot nodded once. "Let's go then."  
There were no zombies on the runway, much to their prayers. The pilot helped strapped the three in before getting into the front compartment and starting up the blades.   
Over the radio came another voice, one that was scratchy with static. "Twenty-nine zero four," he spoke. "This will be your last flight, do you copy?"  
"I copy," the pilot replied into the radio system. He obviously was not a professional pilot, more likely someone who just knew how to fly- at least the trio hoped he knew how to fly.   
"The bombs will be dropped at midnight."  
"Bombs?" Gwen quickly questioned, jumping forward in her seat. "What bombs?"  
"Nuclear bombs, miss," the pilot replied, his uncaring voice sounding all to patronizing for her liking. "The government are going to nuke Canada."  
"But there are innocent people down there!" Mike yelled back, but the pilot wasn't listening. It wasn't his decision after all, but it didn't hurt any less. Zoey started crying, her thoughts with everyone she had met at the survivor base. They were all going to die after they had tried to hard to survive.   
The three were stunned into silence.   
Gwen tried not to look as they lifted into the air, but she couldn't resist. The first thing she saw was the blood. Trails of it covering the gravel parking lot. The majority of the the infected were dead, bullet wounds in their bodies, but those that weren't could be seen huddled on the Highway 407, a deep pool of blood around their feet.   
Mike heard Gwen's distress and instantly pulled her face to his chest. She sobbed uncontrollably until she couldn't feel anything anymore.


	16. Epilogue: Where It Never Really Ends

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> And somehow, the never ending circle of good and bad kept on turning.

The bath water had long run cold by the time she climbed out of the tub. She toweled off her hair and dressed as slowly as possible, hoping that time wouldn't pass her by anymore. Every ticking second on the clock was another beating on her heart and another memory faded.   
By the time she reached the truck yard she was shaking. The red headed girl slipped their fingers together, but it wasn't the same kind of comfort. No matter how hard Zoey squeezed her fingers, Gwen couldn't take away her sense of warmth. Though it was kind of Zoey to try, everyone knew that it was never going to be enough for her.   
"It'll be okay, you know," she encouraged, and Gwen automatically nodded her head. Her words were caught in her throat, the idea of 'going home' was too much to bear.   
Home.  
Home was a flimsy concept these days. It had been three years since Gwen had had a real home, the kind with four brick walls and a slanted roof. Her other sense of home, the one that her heart yearned for now, had been gone for two years. It still hurt every part of her. 

 

"Hey, wait up!" Both girls turned to see the third member of their trio approaching at quick speed. Zoey fought back a grin at the sight of her fiance, but Gwen remained stone faced. Mike wriggled between them, throwing an arm around each of their shoulder, pulling them closer to him. They both got a kiss on the head before he released them.   
Gwen managed to give her two friends a slight smile, the kind that tugged on the corners of her lips, which was more than what both of them had been expecting to receive from her today.   
In the distance there was a man with a megaphone, ordering everyone into place. Gwen knew him as Chris, and the two were close on a frenemy scale. Zoey and Mike tried to avoid him, especially his bodyguard-an ex-army Sargent nicknamed Chef-out of fear. Rumor had it that Chris wasn't the sanest of people, but Gwen knew he was a reliable source of information. Once a week for the last two years, she had called him, asking for news. It was the same thing every time; Canada was a wasteland. Everything that had been in the bombs paths had disintegrated.   
But now the clean up teams had checked over the land and had deemed it safe. The survivors were each given a chance to visit home again.   
It had taken a lot of pleading on Gwen's part to let Mike and Zoey agree to let her go. They didn't think it was a smart idea, but she promised she was up for it. Though she had spent most of her time since arriving in England locked in her bedroom in the apartment the three of them had been assigned. Her grieving process was a long one, and it still hadn't ended, but some where in the back of her mind she could still hear Courtney's voice, telling her that this wasn't much of a life to live. It pushed her forward, so that when she found out about the trip to Canada, Gwen had taken the chance.   
"Will all Canadian travelers line up against the back wall!" Chris bellowed, his voice echoing through the truck yard. "NOT THERE, THAT WALL!" Gwen chuckled under her breath, but not loud enough for her friends to hear. No one listened to Chris, it was one of the reasons he had a bodyguard in the first place. "GWEN!" She covered her ears in protest until Chris had lowered the megaphone. "Gwen," he repeated. "Line-up!" He pointed towards the dissembled line of four other people, none of which she recognized. But she did as she was told and headed to the back of the line, Zoey and Mike following behind her.   
Gwen watched her friends tangled hands, a spout of jealously leaking through her body. She averted her gaze to the rest of the line. The young man standing beside her was strumming his fingers against his jeans, his dark hair falling into his eyes as he bent his head to the ground.   
"You look calm," he remarked, catching her eyes without turning his head.   
"You don't," she replied.   
He let out a quiet, breathy chuckle. "No, I suppose I'm not." His smile was beautiful, radiating every good thing that could have possibly been happening right now. "I'm Trent."  
"Gwen." And somehow, the never ending circle of good and bad kept on turning.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is it. This is the end.  
> In all seriousness, what are your thoughts and comments on the story as a whole? On individual chapters and/or scenes? Character portrayal? Character development? What are your thoughts on this?  
> PS. There is actually two more chapters left, which is why it says 16/18. There is the alternative ending to come next week, and the week after we get a special bonus scene from Chapter 10: Where It Doesn't Look Good. And then it is officially finished...  
> BUT WAIT! THERE'S MORE!   
> Camp NaNoWriMo starts in April and I'm writing a COMPANION STORY to this one! It focus' on Al and Heather's journey through the zombie apocalypse, so if there's anything about them that you want to know, let me know and we'll see what I can do ; )Keep an eye out for it May 1st! 
> 
> I just wanted to say a great big thank you to everyone who has read, reviewed and enjoyed this story. It will forever have a special place in my heart as the first story I completed during NaNoWriMo. I hope you guys have had as much fun on this journey as I have.


	17. Alternative Ending - Where It Isn' Real

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Because I really could have ended it like this.

"...That's it?" The voice called into the darkness. A faint buzzing could be heard, but only to them. "All of of that and...that's it? That's your bullshit ending?" The Asian teenager pulled the headgear off. "You just decided to nuke Canada? What kind of fucked up company are you running here, McLean?"   
She narrowed her eyes at the older man that was sat in a chair behind her, feet propped up on the desk. He shrugged his shoulders uncommittedly. The rest of the teenagers pulled off their own headgear, turning to look at him as well.  
"I hate to say it," the brunette said, smoothing down her hair (helmet hair was not a good look for her). "But Heather's right."  
"Thank you!" Heather yelled, throwing one arm in the air, the other was clutching the virtual reality helmet to her side. "At least Courtney gets it."  
"I think we all get it," the Gothic teenager spoke up, placing her helmet on the floor.   
"Oh no," Heather protested. "You, Count Gwenula, got to live! You don't get to complain about this!"   
Gwen rolled her eyes, stepping away from the area that had been set up especially for the virtual reality simulator. The rest of the group were hiding their smirks because they all knew why Heather was so mad, but only Gwen was brave enough to say it.   
"Worried that people might actually think you have feelings for Alejandro?"   
"Si, mi amor," the Latino spoke up, wrapping his arms around Heather's waist. "What must the people think?" She elbowed him in the gut, storming away from the group and towards the door. The rest of the group, which included Gwen, Courtney, Mike, Zoey, Scott, Alejandro, and even Duncan and Blainely, soon followed, ignoring Chris' comments about having another go. They had had enough virtual reality for one day.


	18. Where It Isn't Such A Boring Day

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is a bonus chapter and is set during chapter 10.

It wasn't particularly exciting to sit around in the cafeteria all day, but Zoey wasn't quite sure what else to do. Her dorm room was just as boring, and she'd promised Mike that she would meet him here for a midnight snack. It was almost eleven.   
She twiddled her thumbs and tried her best to not listen in on other peoples conversations. She pulled her phone from her pocket and started playing Snake again. Heather had wanted to take the cellphones away from Zoey and Mike now that Mike wasn't being cooped up in quarantine, but Alejandro had let the couple keep them for emergencies and such.   
Zoey was about to give up on her waiting and wander down to the lab to meet Mike there when her cellphone started ringing. She had never had a phone call on it before and was in shock, especially since it was an unknown number that flashed up on the screen.   
"H-Hello?" She answered.  
"Zoey!"   
"Gwen?!" The red haired girl asked excitedly. She hadn't been expecting Gwen to need her phone number, but had given it just in case. "What's going?"  
"I-It's Courtney!"  
"What about Courtney?" Zoey got to her feet out of habit and started pacing the floor. "Gwen calm down, I can't hear you. What happened to Courtney?" Gwen was frantic on the other end of the phone, so much so that Zoey could barely make out a word she was saying. "W-What do you mean she was bit?"  
"SHE WAS ATTACKED!" Gwen was sobbing and yelling. She wasn't angry with Zoey, she was angry at herself. She was supposed to have protected Courtney, but she couldn't even do that right.  
"Where are you? Gwen, tell me where you are."  
"S-Sillery," she sniffed, wiping away the tears that were free falling down her face. She hadn't wanted to cry around Cody, but something about Zoey's comforting voice had made her feel safe enough to cry now.   
"Quebec City?" Zoey questioned. "I-I used to vacation there with my parents."  
Gwen gave her the address before hanging up. She needed some time alone before heading back to take care of Courtney some more. She didn't know if Alejandro would let anyone come save Courtney, or if the cure even worked, but it was a hope that had surged as soon as she had found Zoey's phone number in the bottom of her bag.   
Zoey ran to the lab, tripping over people and running into walls, but she kept going. Mike was down there with Alejandro and Blainely. They were running some more aftermath tests on him, but promised that he was completely cured. They were simply monitoring him.   
The red head was completely out of breath by the time she was skidded into the lab. "Courtney...Gwen...infected...Quebec...need...help."  
"What's wrong?" Mike questioned, jumping to his feet and helping Zoey into an empty seat. "What about Courtney and Gwen?"  
Alejandro moved to Zoey's side, too, while Blainely simply ignored the interruption and continued looking through her case studies.   
Zoey continued to breathe heavily for a few moments before being able to form a sentence. "Gwen and Courtney are in Quebec City," she explained. "Courtney...Courtney was bitten. She's infected. G-Gwen wants us to take the cure t-to them."  
Alejandro's eyes went wide. Courtney was the only person in the entire world that held the cure. If she died...  
"Let's go," the Latino quickly interjected between Mike and Zoey's own plans.   
"No!" The couple quickly countered. Alejandro raised his eyebrow at the both of them. "W-What we mean," Mike told him, rubbing the back of his neck nervously. "I-Is that we can go by ourselves, it'll be easier with just two of us."  
"You don't leave this base without a higher up," Alejandro informed him, asserting his authority in every crack he could find.   
"I'll go." For the first time, Zoey noticed Heather sitting in the back corner of the lab. She had a sly smirk across her features that suggested she was up to something, but Zoey knew better than to question it. "I'll grab farm boy and we can leave immediately. We'll get there by dawn."


End file.
